Table of Gods

WE’VE STARTED PRINTING!

After seven years and three months, it’s finally happening. Table of Gods is being produced! I almost cried looking at the first printed sheet.

The food photography still blows me away. The UV LED press and the fine art paper make each photo look so real I’m tempted to eat the page. But what surprises me even more as I go through the printed sheets is just how much is in Table of Gods. Apart from the 70 recipes and 100+ food photos, there are illustrated maps, travel guides, short stories, myths, language guides, cuneiform guides, king lists, law codes, and much more.

I’m signing off on every sheet that comes out of the press, 68 in total,* and will stay at the factory 24/7 for the next five days to make sure all of you who ordered the Christmas edition get your books (time machines) on time.

Because the printing was delayed three weeks (mostly because I kept fiddling with the final 1% and was too anxious to start before I’d read the manuscript for the gazillionth time), we’ll only be able to deliver 10,000 books on time before Christmas. About 4,500 remain and the Kickstarter ends in ten days.

If you want to surprise someone with a Christmas gift that takes them back to ancient Mesopotamia, visit tableofgods.com/kickstarter

*We print eight pages on each sheet: 8 × 68 = 544, the total page count of Table of Gods. Once I approve a sheet, they print 50,000 more.

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1 day ago | [YT] | 859

Table of Gods

Table of Gods is the most funded art book on Kickstarter ever! Thank you all for your support 🙏🏼❤️ If you wanna join ten thousand others who will travel to ancient Mesopotamia soon, go to tableofgods.com/kickstarter 😃

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5 days ago | [YT] | 943

Table of Gods

The last couple of days have been among the hardest since I started writing Table of Gods in 2019. I’ve been away from my family for three weeks and have made crucial decisions about the book every day. I almost lost it the other day after working 24 hours straight on the final adjustments to the interior design. Feeling completely defeated, I picked up the phone and called the only person I would call if I ended up on a deserted island—my dad.

Two days later, Dad arrived with optimism, energy, and, most importantly, his presence and support ❤️ Being much better at design than I am, Dad has helped make many of the tough decisions so much easier.

And now, for the first time in three weeks, I feel the optimism and energy that have guided me throughout this seven-year journey. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll start printing Table of Gods tomorrow!

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5 days ago | [YT] | 1,051

Table of Gods

Hi everyone! I’ve wanted to update you more often but I’ve literally been sleeping at the printer (on my plotters) for the last couple of days.

We’re in a pre-printing phase where we’ve color-proofed all 100+ food photos in the book with the help of my photographer.

We now have a customized color profile for Table of Gods that tells the UV-LED printing machine how much ink to apply to our fine art paper for the best possible print result. The photography is incredibly vivid and I couldn’t be happier with the result (and I’m not easily happy with results).

We’ve also made adjustments to the color of the other pages in the book. Mainly the chapter openings. Each of the eleven chapters in Table of Gods opens with a full spread in blue that resembles the Ishtar Gate.

It’s super hard to transfer color from the screen onto physical paper. The only way to see what the colors on the screen look like in the physical world is to test. We’ve test-printed over fifty variations of blue and gold over the last few days and finally nailed it!

Despite averaging 4 hours of sleep the last couple of days, I feel so energized I can barely sleep even when I try. We’re so close to pressing the print button now. Just a few more tweaks!

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1 week ago | [YT] | 871

Table of Gods

The evolution of the Table of Gods cover, from 2020 to 2026. Swipe through the versions 👉

If you’d like the final version on your bookshelf, visit tableofgods.com/kickstarter for more information.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 1,169

Table of Gods

When I was 16, I fell in love with an Assyrian girl. Her eyes were greener than olives (green olives) and her hair darker than the sky (the night sky). I was only a kid but one hundred percent determined to marry this girl because there couldn’t possibly be another one out there.

The problem was that she rejected me, and kept rejecting me. But I’m not easily discouraged by rejections (or I’m just too stupid to understand when to let go). I kept trying and my grit eventually paid off.

At 18 I got permission to call her my girlfriend. At 19 I tattooed her name on my arm using a big font I found somewhere online (yes I regret it—the font). At 20 we got engaged. And at 21 we got married.

Three kids and one book later, she’s still my best friend and the only one in the world who knows all my flaws yet still loves me.

On this day, 12 years ago, we got married. Today, I’m on the other side of the globe ensuring the production of Table of Gods goes as planned while Melisia takes care of three toddlers by herself (which she has done for most of 2026) while also studying full time to become a teacher.

To say I would be nothing without her is an understatement. Happy anniversary Mel, love you to Midyat and back ❤️

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1 week ago | [YT] | 4,939

Table of Gods

Every day, hundreds of people support our mission to bring ancient Mesopotamia back to life.

We just surpassed 10,000 backers, and I’m immensely grateful to each one of you (can’t believe we’ve grown into a small army in 3 weeks).

Only one week remains until pre-orders on Kickstarter close. If you’re interested in preordering the book, visit tableofgods.com/kickstarter

10,000 times: Thank you. Towdi. Basima.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 616

Table of Gods

For the past three days I’ve been reading this pile of papers, known as plotters, over and over. This is the final manuscript that I have to sign before we start printing Table of Gods 😱 I’ve never had more mixed feelings about anything in my life. I’m either super anxious or super excited, and my feelings change every five minutes or so.

I love this. And I hate this. I can’t relax and I definitely can’t sleep. But as I read through the manuscript for the millionth time, I can’t help but smile and feel good. I wrote Table of Gods with my ten-year-old self in mind. The boy who wanted to travel to the land of his ancestors but didn’t have the book to take him there.

Now finally, after more than two decades, I have the tool/artifact/book to take me, and all of you, to ancient Mesopotamia.

Tomorrow I’ll decide exactly which pages we start printing first. I’ll tell you more about it soon. Thank you for your support and for giving me this opportunity. I will do everything I can to make Table of Gods live up to, and perhaps even exceed your expectations ❤️

Only 12 days remain of the Kickstarter campaign. If you’re interested in preordering your time machine, visit tableofgods.com/kickstarter to learn more.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 1,915

Table of Gods

Not a brain, just bappir (Sumerian beer bread) 🍞

If you want the recipe, visit tableofgods.com/bappir

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1,851

Table of Gods

Color proofing is finally complete! Together with my photographer, I traveled to the printer on Aug 29. For a full week, we’ve gone through 104 pages of food photography in Table of Gods over and over and over.

We’ve literally made 1% adjustments to many of the photos to ensure they all look as good as possible in print. Less magenta, more yellow, darker, lighter, more contrast, less contrast, and so on.

We’ve made all these color adjustments on a calibrated screen and then output them as digital proofs. Despite their name, digital proofs are physical, resembling thin photo paper. The purpose of these proofs is to simulate how the photos will look when printed on the actual paper. But since we use a rare fine-art paper, the simulation is much harder.

So, to make sure our week of color proofing wasn't for nothing, we test-printed eight pages from the book to see how closely they would match the color proofs.

The result exceeded our expectations, and my photographer said, “I’ve made books for the past 30 years, but I’ve never seen paper that prints so vividly!”

On Monday we'll go through all the photos one last time, and then on Wednesday we'll finally print the book.

This feels good! And scary. But mostly good! And scary.

Talk to you soon,
Arim

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1,484