• Joy of Cooking is my number one favorite cookbook, not necessarily the new one, maybe the one before this. It has all your basic information included on how to cook just about anything. Gives room for the creative as well. • Greens is my favorite veggie cookbook, because evevn though the recipes are difficult, they taste good, and I['ve never had anything in that book come out lousy. • Joyce Chen... great Classic Chinese cookbook. • Myra Breckenridge Cookbook, now out of printi, but is very classic, and also has a wonderful section on how to cook for a large groups. • Jewish Cooking in America, for sentimental reasons, and for some out of this world, and different than my mom's cooking. • And, this is a cheat, but the whole TIME/LIFE series of cookbooks that came out so very long ago.. wonderful, wonderful books.