Have you ever bought the same cookbook twice?

[Jacquester]

So I figured I'd 'fess up. I tend to get an inspired to buy cookbooks from different sources. Sometimes amazon, sometimes people's reccomendation, and yes the egullet forums. Recently two times I purchased a cookbook that I already had. (of course I do have several hundred). So I was wondering if I"m the only one, or has this happened to anyone else?

[Anna N]

Done it more than once! Usually though it's a garage-sale or charity store purchase. I feel very foolish afterwards even though it's not a ton of money. It's so silly because it is always a book that didn't catch my interest after I got it home the first time! If it had I would know I owned it.

Edited for clarity?

Edited October 24, 2009 by Anna N (log)

[Wholemeal Crank]

Hm....I think I have done that at least once, but fortunately it was via a thrift shop so not a big outlay.

I've also bought a cookbook for the 2nd time deliberately, when I got rid of one a bit too hastily, and had second thoughts. There is one I've been thinking about recently that I might just try to find used online again....

Edited October 24, 2009 by Wholemeal Crank (log)

[Peter the eater]

You are not alone. Several times I've come back from the library excited about a new book only to get that Déjà vu feeling, followed by the actual memories.

[Bricktop]

Amazon has stopped me several times. But I have bought James Beard's American Cookery 3x. Now I don't lend it out any more.

[Kerry Beal]

Oh yeah, numerous times!

Book warehouse sells remainders and damaged books - I think I discovered 4 copies if Jancis Robinson's How to Taste last cull. I recall they were given away here on eG.

Of course that's not counting the multiple copies of Chocolot's book - Candymaking - and the Time-life book Candy that I've bought intentionally to give away.

[Silkhat]

Anna N said

"Done it more than once! Usually though it's a garage-sale or charity store purchase. I feel very foolish afterwards even though it's not a ton of money. It's so silly because it is always a book that didn't catch my interest after I got it home the first time! If it had I would know I owned it"

I confess that I have done the same a number of times. Once recently was to buy a bundle of cookbooks because it had a few I wanted - but 1 I had already purchased so I don't really count that one do I ?

Neil

[OliverB]

not with cookbook, but with magazines and comics. Luckily Amazon shows you if/when you bought something already, that saved me from doing this with cook books more than once :-)

[liuzhou]

I know a couple of people who liked Fuchsia Dunlop's Sichuan Cookery so much that they also bought her Land of Plenty: a treasury of authentic Sichuan cooking, only to discover that they are in fact the same book (The first is the UK version, the second the American.)

[Kim Shook]

At one point I had THREE copies of 'Ratio'. I have so many cookbooks, spread out all over the house that I could't find it and put it on my Amazon wish list - TWICE!

[Lindacakes]

Of course!  Usually in the Time Life Good Food series, because I can't remember what I have and what I don't off the top of my head.  

 

Sometimes I buy something that I remember some piece of and it turns out I wanted a different book by the same author or some similar mistake.

 

As above, no big deal, most of these purchases happen in thrift stores.  Cookbooks are completely undervalued, and most folks working the stores don't know a good one from a bad one.  I once bought a slew of first edition cookbooks from a used book store -- they caught on when they saw me all flushed and excited at the cash register, though . . . 

[Norm Matthews]

When I first started cooking I got the James Beard Cookbook and bought two more after each of the others started falling apart.. They were paperback.  I got a first edition on line and then got another to keep the first edition in good shape.  I had three copies of American Cookery.  The first one had a tattered cover and dog eared pages. I keep the second one on a bookshelf with glass doors. It still has the dust jacket. I use the third one which replaced the first one. I have a first edition of BakeWise and a second copy that was given to me when I thought I'd lost the first one, then found it. 

Edited March 29, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

[bonkboo]

Do ebook count? I bought Lorna Sass' pressure cooking book 2x hard copy. Otherwise my multiples have been ebooks. Ruhlman's Twenty, MCAH, The CIA Professional Chef, and McGee's Science and Cooking. I spend too much time on MetroNorth and these more reference books are great to have along. When I first bought Twenty, I wanted to be able to read it on the train and couldn't see myself adding that to the heavy bag I already carry. My wife yells at me when I get hard copies to add to our disappearing kitchen space. So I have to really think through before pulling the trigger on hard books.

[Bernoulli]

I bought two books several times.  James Beard's "Theory and Practice of Good Cooking" to replace the one I wore out as well as for gifts.  I believe it's the best basic cookbook ever written.  I have bought several copies of Jennifer Brennan's "One Dish Meals of Asia" to give as gifts.  Both books are out of print but easy to find.

[Dineomite]

No, but I've bought "The White Album" in various forms like 5 times.