Who said books are a thing of the past? LEGO and LEGO fans certainly haven’t! With many gloriously illustrated and annotated LEGO books available today, let’s take a look at some of the best LEGO books for all ages. These picks are cheap, wild and awesome – you really can’t go wrong, readers.
It doesn’t really matter if you come from a household run amok with LEGO madness strewn everywhere… or if you’re just starting to look into LEGO… or if you simply want to expand your technique and imaginative muscles. There is truly something for everyone when perusing a good LEGO inspiration book. Pick up some quality LEGO reading material and put your LEGO to good use.
Kids and adults alike will appreciate not only the illustrations, but also the range of building themes and difficulties covered in this selection.
So let’s get started, in no particular order!
What Are the Best Building & Inspirational LEGO Books for All Ages?
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LEGO Micro Cities: Build Your Own Mini Metropolis! Hardcover, Kindle
Shop now on Amazon and on eBay.
An excellent micro-scale guide, be sure to check it out in the stores above! With Micro Cities, build LEGO cityscapes and architectural details that are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. This one is also brimming with fantastic and illustrative photos and step-by-step instructions to fuel your own inspired builds as well as building techniques. Regardless of how small you want to make your LEGO micro-civilization, the imagination is the limit!
The Art of the Brick: A Life in LEGO, Hardcover, Kindle
Available on Amazon and eBay.
If you have a LEGO fan in your circle, you may recognize Nathan Sawaya’s now-famous LEGO sculpture Yellow. Learn more about this artist who uses LEGO as a medium to create intriguing and surreal brick-built portraits and sculpture. Though this richly illustrated showcase is geared more toward grown-ups, kids also can nonetheless get inspired to look at LEGO in new ways.
Beautiful LEGO, Paperback, Kindle
Available on Amazon.
Speaking of artists, this celebratory showcase highlights the building feats of highly-skilled LEGO artists worldwide. Printed in full-color, the book presents LEGO artworks which include still-life replicas, architecture, robots, spacecraft, animals, mythological creatures, and much more awesome goods.
Because Beautiful LEGO is an inspiration source more than a building guide, content preference is given to page spanning photographs and artist interviews. One-up your imaginative process!
The LEGO® Castle Book: Build Your Own Medieval World, Hardcover, Kindle
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With a cover as gorgeous as that, I’d want this book even just to display! The primary focus of the book is miniature building (micro-scale), and the guide covers a wide range of building techniques. Follow along or jump to a section that catches your interest and learn some truly clever techniques for building in LEGO micro-scale. Basic builds are included, as well as six larger castle “master builds”.
The LEGO Power Functions Idea Book: Machines and Mechanisms, Paperback, Kindle
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This fully illustrated title is Volume 1 of a two volume series by Yoshihito Isogawa. Isogawa is well-known among LEGO Technic fans, and he has several other successful books available.
The Power Functions Idea Book is well-suited for the LEGO fan who takes an interest in engineering, robotics and buildable mechanisms. As a starter guide, Isogawa’s techniques and pictorial approach help make it a joy to learn how to build simple, custom LEGO functions ground-up.
LEGO Technic gears, motors, axles and more, are showcased in hundreds of mechanisms, with parts lists included. Additionally, the guide prides itself on demonstrating basic LEGO Technic construction methods and key mechanical principles. Get ready to use your LEGO to invent something!
LEGO Awesome Ideas, Hardcover, Kindle
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With this inspiration guide, take a visual trip through five LEGO worlds: Outer Space, Modern Metropolis, The Wild West, Fantasyland and the Real World. The Awesome Ideas book is stuffed full with hundreds of official LEGO building techniques and suggestions. Taking even a casual browse through this book can be a surefire way to break a boredom streak!
The LEGO Ideas Book: Unlock Your Imagination, Hardcover, Kindle
Available on Amazon and eBay.
A favorite. Like the Awesome Ideas book, this big 200-page guidebook is not a step-by-step instructional, but an inspiration springboard. Hundreds of clear and page-spanning photos of builds and templates – complete or in progress – fill the pages.
Common bricks are highlighted in The LEGO Ideas book, so if you have some generic elements you’re not sure what to do with – check this one out! Parts identification pages are included at the beginning of each chapter, and six themed chapters are included: transportation, town & country, space, castle, adventure, and make and keeps.
The LEGO Animation Book, Paperback, Kindle
Available on Amazon and eBay.
Stop-motion LEGO has intrigued me ever since it came to the foreground in the early 2000s with the release of LEGO Studios. Nowadays, for fans of the recent LEGO Movies, or those who want to do something new with their creations, The LEGO Animation Book is an awesome resource. Step-by-step tutorials are included and insightful information about storyboarding and post-production processes. Bring your LEGO Land to life behind the camera!
How About Some LEGO Business and History Books?
Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry, Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle
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As a lifelong LEGO BIONICLE enthusiast, this book is special. Appearing in print for one of the first times, was the pivotal role that the BIONICLE theme played in LEGO’s survival circa late 1990s – early 2000s. It is a lengthy business book primarily, but also a goldmine of information and insight for avid LEGO fans.
The LEGO Book, Hardcover
Available on Amazon and eBay.
It is worthwhile to note that there are two versions of this book, both by Daniel Lipkowitz: a 2012 edition, and the 2018 edition which comes with an exclusive commemorative LEGO brick.
Regardless of the edition, The LEGO Book(s) will take you on a vibrant and visual tour of the world of the LEGO brick and a retrospective story behind the company. The LEGO Book is a recommended casual read – easy to pick up and browse, but hard to put down.
LEGO Minifigure A Visual History New Edition: With exclusive LEGO spaceman minifigure! Hardcover, Kindle
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This is the most up to date edition of the LEGO books highlighting that ever-present and growing army of little people – the LEGO minifigure! The Visual History is a highly illustrative timeline and factoid-laden bit of LEGO literature. It puts a fun and vibrant perspective on the development of the “LEGOman” – from the grand entrance in 1978 to today. I personally look forward to picking this one up soon!
Which Theme-specific LEGO Books to Consider?
The Ultimate LEGO book, Hardcover, Paperback
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An oldie but a goodie. Published in 1999, The Ultimate LEGO book will nonetheless give fans of trivia reason to rejoice! It highlights LEGO themes contemporary to the era, and also devotes a lot of page space to showcasing amazing LEGO sculptures created by designers at the LEGOLand parks. From iconic landmarks like Mount Rushmore and the Sydney Opera House, to sculpture inspired by pop culture ( like Star Trek), there is a lot to enjoy in this memorable book even today. Make it a staple to keep in your LEGO book collection!
LEGO Space: Building the Future, Hardcover, Kindle
Available on Amazon and eBay.
The retro-inspired cover alone promises to deliver something special in this inspirational guide. With a combination of world-building, gorgeous imagery and graphics, and lots of glorious “greebling”, the LEGO Space book gives builders a quality sci-fi jolt! Practical LEGO building techniques are included throughout to aid the creation of your own interstellar LEGO space world. Overall, the book is a homage to the days of Classic LEGO Space, and may easily appeal to those who grew up with LEGO in the 1980s and early 1990s.
BIONICLE: Rahi Beasts, Paperback
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As part of the original LEGO BIONICLE mythos, this source of building inspiration served as a guidebook to the monstrous creatures of the BIONICLE world circa 2005 – the Rahi. No step-by-step instructions are included. However, Rahi Beasts contains bits of lore and atmospheric photos of BIONICLE and Technic-based creature creations. A great inspiration for LEGO builders and world-builders to spin their own tale.
LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, Hardcover
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Three editions of this series are available: from left to right, the 2009 Visual Dictionary, the 2014 Updated and Expanded edition, and the newest 2019 edition.
For LEGO fans who are also Star Wars enthusiasts, this series is a match made in heaven. All of the characters that you love and love to hate are here in LEGO form, in addition to streams of facts and trivia and catalogs of weapons, spacecraft, and accessories.
Ultimate LEGO Star Wars, Hardcover, Kindle
Available on Amazon.
The name says it all. This is the definitive LEGO Star Wars book, featuring characters, creatures, locations, vehicles, and equipment. With over 300 pages, this authoritative encyclopedia covers behind-the-scenes material and recounts the development of LEGO Star Wars from the late 1990s to today.
Why You Should Add LEGO Books to Your Collection!
Well, there you have it! For more LEGO activity books, check out the Offical LEGO Shop.
Picking up some inspirational LEGO reading material is an inexpensive asset that you can keep on the bookshelf, the coffee table, and in the play room.
Even if you don’t have the bricks on hand, simply perusing (or studying!) a LEGO guide is great and relaxing fun. You never know when inspiration might strike, and having tangible LEGO building tips handy can amp up a variety of creative projects!
In addition to the books highlighted in this post, more excellent LEGO guides are available for purchase on Amazon as well as on eBay:
This list here is by no means exhaustive, nonetheless I hope to track down some of these books myself. But in the meantime, I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts and experiences with LEGO inspiration books! Happy building, LEGO maniacs.
}B^ ]
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Lego is much alive, with Lego Master (T.V. competition) and Lego shipwrecks (a Lego display on ships) in Perth WA. A new Lego shop will be open soon, it will be one of the largest in Australia.
Your review on these books will give my imagination free rein, while also providing historical context about how these awesome works came into being.
Even if you don’t have kids, they could still be worth checking out because they show what can be done with LEGOs… even if it takes an entire team of people working together!
Thank you for your post.
Cheers
Robin
Oh wow, Brickwrecks looks awesome – I hadn’t seen that before 😮 Thanks for the heads up about that!
I’m glad you found the post helpful. Cheers
Oh lord, I think I’ve reached heaven. I’m so glad I ran into this page! I’ve got so many lego blocks laying around and I just don’t know what to do with them. The instructions from the boxes are great to build what’s on the box, but I always wondered if these blocks could function for another purpose. You’ve got a wide range of suggestions here, which book would you suggest to a person who’s just about to go rogue with his legos?
Hahaha thanks for the comment. It’s great that you’ve kept the bricks around even when they weren’t “active”, and better late than never to the building party!
I’d suggest either the above The LEGO Ideas Book: Unlock Your Imagination, or LEGO Awesome Ideas. Especially for someone who already knows LEGO building but has not experimented much independently, those books give broad ranges of general ideas and some entertaining tips about building inventive creations with an existing collection.
I hope you stick around, I’d enjoy hearing how your rogue pursuits progress!
Thank you for another very interesting article. My kids (and to be fair myself as well) are big fan of Lego, and we spent hours creating miracles from it, but I had no idea that there are also book in this topic. I’m trying my best to interest my kids in books instead of tv or consoles and it may be a great idea for presents. I especially like the ones about Star Wars, and I’m sure it will be great fun for a whole family to read through it together.
My pleasure. LEGO really does provide such a great opportunity to do something apart from a screen! And when you combine LEGO with a LEGO book, it is a match made in heaven. 🙂 Many of these books are available via Kindle now, but I say: go for the physical print versions!
LEGO is the favorite playing instrument for me in my childhood days and even today I cherish those moments. So after reading your article about LEGO books it recreates those moments in front of my eyes. Although all LEGO books are unique and very interesting I especially like a couple of them.
The Power Functions Idea Book series by Yoshihito Isogawa is all about engineering, robotics and custom-made LEGO’s, Nathan Sawaya’s yellow LEGO sculpture is very famous and he explains everything about creating different human forms in his An Art of Brick. Then I like the Lego Castle Book all about miniature building and the book covers a wide range of building techniques, LEGO Micro Cities is very interesting where you learn how to create Mini small cityscapes and architectural buildings.
But my favorite one is the LEGO animation book focuses on the storyboarding and post-production processes step by step… and the famous LEGO BIONICLE of 2000 era Brick by Brick which is by far the best one. Apart from that the LEGO Space: Building the Future is took my attention by its gorgeous graphics. Thanks, TALM.
Sweet, and yep I agree – even when not planning a current creation, LEGO books are great for simply bringing to recollection old playtime glories and inspiration for the future.
rIt’s like the times when I would just relish looking through LEGO catalogs in the 1990s, getting sucked into all the different scenarios and themes, and imagining all the possibilities. Currently, I’m especially partial to the microscale inspiration books.
I really enjoyed this article because my son is a huge lego fan. Loved it, and I am definitely going to get these for him on his birthday coming up soon. Thanks for sharing here, I really appreciate and I would share it as well!
Thanks for letting me know this was helpful – whatever you choose to pick up, I’m sure your son will approve! Books for LEGO ideas and inspiration are great to keep in the collection. Much obliged.
Lego is an absolute classic. I grew up playing with Lego and I have 2 boys that are both huge Lego fans. So we have over the years spent hours constructing Lego creations. Among the collection we have several castles, airoplanes and a box full of bionicles.
To have a Lego book, will be the perfect addition to create more awesome Lego builds and let the imagination run free. Thanks for sharing.
Oh awesome, that sounds like a blast. Creative ideas are not hard to come by in LEGO-themed books, so I’m glad you’ll be adding some to your LEGO building tradition.
I always wanted the larger LEGO castles myself, but have not gotten around to collecting them yet! I’m curious to know if you have kept the BIONICLE collection loose, or if you still have the canisters and boxes for them all?
What a great website! I don’t really know anyone who doesn’t like Lego and after having twins the enjoyment came flooding back to me and it is something to this day we do together – I like the look of the Ultimate Lego Book as it seems to cater for everyone and I know the kids will love this.
There is definitely something for everyone when it comes to LEGO – just gotta know where to look! The cumulative compilation books that LEGO has done over the years are really worth checking out, I’m sure you all will enjoy.