Cookbooks...do they constrain cooks?

[skipper10]

Some interesting ideas for cookbookholics ... If people don't use cookbooks why do they buy so many of them?

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?...tent=readBottom

[Tri2Cook]

Since I'm not financially qualified to travel the world visiting restaurants and exploring cuisines, carefully selected cookbooks help keep me in touch with what is being done in other places. I'm not a random collector and I use them more for information and inspiration than recipes. I don't feel like they constrain me in any way. For example, if I know what people in Thailand use as their major flavor components, I can make Thai influenced food without having to use a recipe. It may be completely seperate from anything people in Thailand actually eat but the flavors would still take them home. That's what cookbooks do for me anyway.