James Bond: 50 Years Of Movie Posters
From Dorling Kindersley

Chances are, going by Skyfall’s UK box-office take, that you are, or you know, a James Bond fan. If so, consider this book, which collects all the Bond posters through the years from the sublime to the ridiculous. On a recent visit to Empire, Benicio del Toro was quite taken with this and spent ages leafing through it, and if it’s good enough for Fenster (himself once a Bond baddie) it’s good enough for you. Buy it here

Team Of Rivals: The Political Genius Of Abraham Lincoln
By Doris Kearns Goodwin

Spielberg’s adapting sections of this piece of historical scholarship as, simply, Lincoln, but for the rest of us it’s a great primer on who Lincoln was beyond the hat and beard and vampire-slaying, what he believed and how he managed to wrangle all his one-time rivals into an effective wartime Cabinet. Buy it here

Alien Vault: The Definitive Story Behind The Film
By Ian Nathan

OK, so this isn’t brand new anymore (if you want something fresher, try Ian’s Masters Of Cinema entry on Joel & Ethan Coen and admittedly it’s by our own Executive Editor, but it might be just the thing for an Alien fan who’s still disappointed by the ending (or indeed beginning) of Prometheus. Buy it here

Monty Python’s Flying Circus – Complete And Annotated: All The Bits
By Luke Dempsey

If you’re a fan of the Ministry of Silly Walks, or have a deceased Norwegian Blue, this is the book for you. A collection of Python scripts that enlivened by explanatory sidebars and stills from the show (not the films), this is a terrific asset for all Python fans and a terrific weapon to beat them over the head with if they quote too many lines at once. Buy it here

Snow Crash
By Neal Stephenson

Joe Cornish is all set to direct the film adaptation of this Neal Stephenson novel, which takes a post-Millenial twist on the cyberpunk genre and turns it on its head. Our heroes are Hiro, a hacker who spends much of his time in the virtual reality Metaverse, and YT, a skateboarding courier, who team up to investigate a computer virus that kills users in the real world too. Like, gnarly dude. Buy it here

The Art And Making Of The Dark Knight Trilogy
By Jody Duncan Jesser

Not quite ready to let go of Christopher Nolan’s Batman? Fear not: this effort combines a ‘making of’ with an ‘art of’ to give you lots more material to digest during the long wait for Justice League and a new Batman. While the die-hard fan will find few revelations within, it’s beautifully presented. Buy it here

Cloud Atlas
By David Mitchell

The Wachowski Brothers and Tom Tykwer have put together a film version of this that is going to leave many scratching their heads. Don’t be one of them. Get in ahead of the game by reading David Mitchell’s original, Booker Prize-listed novel and having just a tiny clue what’s going on once the characters start leaping through the centuries and into the future. You’ll thank us. Buy it here

Robopocalypse
By Daniel H. Wilson

A globe-spanning, multiply-narrated story of mankind’s forthcoming war against our robot oppressors, this does for automata what World War Z (also worth a read) did for zombies. It’s currently next on Steven Spielberg’s To Do list, so if you read it now you will be ready with an opinion when the casting stories and first stills start to arrive. Buy it here

The Fairest One Of All: The Making Of Walt Disney’s Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
By J. B. Kaufman

Astonishingly detailed and visually rich retelling of the story behind the first Disney flick, packed with dense prose by Kaufman, who must have spent years tiptoeing around Disney archives. Thestory sketches alone are worth the hefty cover fee. Buy it here

Audrey: The 60s
By David Wills

A gorgeous, glorious pictorial study of Hepburn as she sashayed through the decade that, in many ways, defined her. Great unseen shots from Breakfast At Tiffany’s, My Fair Lady and Charade bulk up the package, but this is essential for any fans of Audrey. Buy it here

The James Bond Archives
By Paul Duncan

Taschen books are things of beauty, and this is no exception. After pushing the boat out on The Stanley Kubrick Archives, they've given Bond the same treatment in this gorgeous, glorious, glossy and – let's not overstate it – incredibly heavy coffee table book that tells the inside story of every Bond film. Even Never Say Never Again. Pics, interviews, insider tidbits, it's all here. The only thing missing are blueprints for your own hollowed-out volcano base. Buy it here