How Do You Feel About Buying and Using e-Cookbooks?

[blue_dolphin]

14 minutes ago, MikeMac said:

But this not without complications.  I am a huge fan of Modernist Cuisine I have everything that they’ve published but because of the size of the books and the difficulty in searching for information I find them incredibly difficult to use other than Modernist Cuisine at Home which is available through “inking”  and has a great search capability.

All the Modernist books are indexed over at Eat Your Books.  I you haven’t tried it, you might sign up for a free account, play around with the filters and see if it helps you out. Free accounts are limited to 5 books and Bread & Pizza have each volume indexed separately so you won’t be able to add them all to your library at once but could swap them in and out as needed.
I rely heavily on EYB to search all my books and am a big fan. 

[MikeMac]

I can’t figure out how to use eat  your books from what I can see after signing up It tells you where the recipe is and you still have to go to the big book which kind of defeats the purpose.

 

What I’m trying to do is get access to the Books on my iPad legally and In do not mind paying for this luxury. 

 

Blue-dolphin I see you’re from southern California so you might have a leg up on me technically.  Maybe but I’m looking for easy and eat your books and I can’t figure out how to access it.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

49 minutes ago, MikeMac said:

I can’t figure out how to use eat  your books from what I can see after signing up It tells you where the recipe is and you still have to go to the big book which kind of defeats the purpose.

 

For good or ill that's exactly how it works.

 

[MikeMac]

JoNorvelle Walker Thank you very much for saving me a whole bunch of time really appreciate your comment

[streem26]

I'm a middle-aged fogey who LOVES books and couldn't get behind the idea of a Kindle when they first came out. But hard copy cookbooks are completely impractical for me, between keeping them open to the right page and keeping them clean and having room to store them..... etc.. I find it much easier to use e-recipes with digital menu planner, to import recipes and make the changes based on my family's preferences. 

Edited June 25, 2022 by streem26 (log)

[KennethT]

Bumping this thread..... I've had a sudden interest in Ebook cookbooks but don't know where to start.  Where do most people buy them?  What is the typical price you would pay for one (not including a sale or anything like that)?

[lindag]

I own a couple but much prefer the printed medium.

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

Bumping this thread..... I've had a sudden interest in Ebook cookbooks but don't know where to start.  Where do most people buy them?  What is the typical price you would pay for one (not including a sale or anything like that)?

 

Like @lindag, I prefer a paper book but I've also made good use of ebooks.  If you want to try them out, my recommendation is to start with your public library.   It takes a little while to develop familiarity with  the specific e-book reader navigation you use while cooking - setting bookmarks, jumping back or forward within a book or between books, adding notes or comments - so take a little time to do that with the format you choose. My library lets me download ebooks in the Kindle format and most of the e-cookbooks I've purchased are from Amazon so I'm most familiar with that but I've also used Overdrive (Libby) to access ePub format books.  

Price-wise, I've noticed that Apple iBook prices seem to track pretty close to Amazon wrt to sales, etc.  Most of the Kindle cookbooks I've purchased from Amazon have been sale-priced, in the $1.99 - $4.99 range, though I've paid more for specific non-bargain books that I wanted to have in ebook format. 

 

You could also take a look at ckbk, a subscription service that offers digital access to 700 + cookbooks.  At first, this rubbed me the wrong way as it seemed like they were just scraping the recipes and making them searchable while what usually draws me into a book is the writing, whether it's stories, background, header notes, etc. but a closer look suggests that they do capture all the content of the books.  To me, the reading experience isn't as seamless as a paper book or Kindle, but the content is there and they do offer a lot of out-of-print books.  I looked at Irene Kuo's The Key to Chinese Cooking and the lovely drawings that I found so helpful in learning to cook are indeed available. 

Downsides are that you're limited to the books they have available and a LOT of popular books aren't.  At the moment, I personally own 513 cookbooks, 125 are Kindle ebooks. Only 17 of my 513 cookbooks are among the 745 books on ckbk.   Not sure if that's good because there's not a lot of duplication or bad because they offer a lot of books I'm not interested in.  I think the cost of a one month trial is around 5 bucks so you could check it out if you were curious.  I did this recently, thinking it might help me preview books that I'm considering purchasing.  So far, I'm ambivalent as to its value.

[KennethT]

9 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Like @lindag, I prefer a paper book but I've also made good use of ebooks.  If you want to try them out, my recommendation is to start with your public library.   It takes a little while to develop familiarity with  the specific e-book reader navigation you use while cooking - setting bookmarks, jumping back or forward within a book or between books, adding notes or comments - so take a little time to do that with the format you choose. My library lets me download ebooks in the Kindle format and most of the e-cookbooks I've purchased are from Amazon so I'm most familiar with that but I've also used Overdrive (Libby) to access ePub format books.  

Price-wise, I've noticed that Apple iBook prices seem to track pretty close to Amazon wrt to sales, etc.  Most of the Kindle cookbooks I've purchased from Amazon have been sale-priced, in the $1.99 - $4.99 range, though I've paid more for specific non-bargain books that I wanted to have in ebook format. 

 

You could also take a look at ckbk, a subscription service that offers digital access to 700 + cookbooks.  At first, this rubbed me the wrong way as it seemed like they were just scraping the recipes and making them searchable while what usually draws me into a book is the writing, whether it's stories, background, header notes, etc. but a closer look suggests that they do capture all the content of the books.  To me, the reading experience isn't as seamless as a paper book or Kindle, but the content is there and they do offer a lot of out-of-print books.  I looked at Irene Kuo's The Key to Chinese Cooking and the lovely drawings that I found so helpful in learning to cook are indeed available. 

Downsides are that you're limited to the books they have available and a LOT of popular books aren't.  At the moment, I personally own 513 cookbooks, 125 are Kindle ebooks. Only 17 of my 513 cookbooks are among the 745 books on ckbk.   Not sure if that's good because there's not a lot of duplication or bad because they offer a lot of books I'm not interested in.  I think the cost of a one month trial is around 5 bucks so you could check it out if you were curious.  I did this recently, thinking it might help me preview books that I'm considering purchasing.  So far, I'm ambivalent as to its value.

Thanks so much for this.  I've taken some e-cookbooks (Dishoom, Fuchsia Dunlop)  out from library in Overdrive (I don't have a kindle yet) but one thing I noticed is the lack of photos in some of them.  Like you, I also like the stories/background info not just recipes.  Do photos come through in the Kindle versions?

[blue_dolphin]

28 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Thanks so much for this.  I've taken some e-cookbooks (Dishoom, Fuchsia Dunlop)  out from library in Overdrive (I don't have a kindle yet) but one thing I noticed is the lack of photos in some of them.  Like you, I also like the stories/background info not just recipes.  Do photos come through in the Kindle versions?

For cookbooks, I generally use the Kindle app on my iPad and photos usually display very nicely. I assume there's a Kindle app for other tablets. I have a small Kindle device (Paperwhite) that has a small, monochrome display that I use for reading other books and it’s not so great for photos. It’s like reading a small paperback. 
I've also noticed there are things about the way individual books are formatted that makes them more or less pleasing to navigate and use. Some of that is the dependent on the e-reader software but some is on the publisher and how they’ve formatted tables of contents, etc. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

10 hours ago, KennethT said:

Bumping this thread..... I've had a sudden interest in Ebook cookbooks but don't know where to start.  Where do most people buy them?  What is the typical price you would pay for one (not including a sale or anything like that)?

 

eBooks are wonderful for many things, but cookbooks are not among them.  Unless the accessibility features of eBooks are required.  The technical quality of eBooks is all over the spectrum.  Some eBooks I find unusable.  Some eBooks have a dysfunctional index.  Some eBooks don't even pretend.  They have no index at all.  Many eBooks have no page numbers.  Even if the index lists the page number from the print edition, good luck finding the recipe you are looking for.  Some eBook indices have hyperlinks.  These are more useful.  However those books are the exception.

 

Still, assuming one has ten fingers and as many toes, with a print book it's possible to go back and forth among a dozen recipes.  Try that with an eBook.  Yes, I know there are Kindle bookmarks, but that is not the same.

 

As I recall eBook prices are set by the publisher, not by the seller.  If I see an eBook I might like at $1.99 or $2.99 I'll be tempted to buy it, though I may never read it.  When I purchase a hard copy cookbook I will probably read it at least once, even if I never cook from it.  Sometimes if an eBook holds promise I will buy the hardback.

 

As always I recommend checking your local library.

 

[Mjx]

So far, I've downloaded a few free cookbooks and guides (e.g. from sites such as Project Gutenberg), but haven't bought any. If I can get a print version of a book, I'd rather have that, because the damage from a fall or spill tends to be less catastrophic.

[weinoo]

9 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

eBooks are wonderful for many things, but cookbooks are not among them. 

 

I must agree, as I've never purchased nor used an ebook cookbook to actually cook from.

 

I do borrow books occasionally from the library onto my iPad, and then get a notice when they automatically disappear...before I've even looked at them.

Edited August 10, 2023 by weinoo (log)

[Maison Rustique]

I read a lot of eBooks on my Kindle, but not cookbooks. I've tried with a few samples I've downloaded and I just can't. I'd rather check out the real book from the library and if there is something I want to save, take a photo of those pages and put it in my recipe files on my PC. Probably not strictly legal, but I somehow doubt the FBI will show up to search my 10,000 recipes on my PC that are only for personal use. Well, OK, I might send one to my sister occasionally. Lock me up!!

[Smithy]

I've recently begun using my e-cookbooks more than before, and I have a question. In Kindle, isn't it possible to highlight and comment on (annotate for personal use) a book? I thought it was. It may depend on the platform in use; I'm using an Android-based tablet with the Kindle app.

 

A related issue, which I've had regarding print cookbooks as well, is how to keep track of a recipe that I decide is my quintessential, platonic ideal, I-never-want-to-mess-with-another-version favorite. Most recently it's Balaboosta's Tangy Tabbouleh, which I may get around to posting about elsewhere. I'd like to flag it as a favorite, either in the Kindle app if I can search on "favorites" or somewhere else that I can find it. What have I done with my "all-time favorites" list? I don't know. It isn't in any of my cloud drives. It might be on a Post-It note on the refrigerator at home. It might be on an old computer. Wherever it is, I can't find it. Maybe EatYourBooks has potential for such a list.

[blue_dolphin]

16 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I've recently begun using my e-cookbooks more than before, and I have a question. In Kindle, isn't it possible to highlight and comment on (annotate for personal use) a book? I thought it was. It may depend on the platform in use; I'm using an Android-based tablet with the Kindle app.

Yes, it’s possible.  See here.  I have done it on my Kindle Paperwhite and in the Kindle app on my iPad and phone. I assume the Android app has similar functionality. 
For me, it’s not as handy as a note on a paper page as you need to tap the highlighted text to read the associated note.

 

You can view notes across all books in your online notebook. See the link to that down towards the bottom of the page I linked to above. I assume that requires internet access. Not sure if there’s a similar device-specific function that wouldn’t need the internet. 
Hopefully more adept Kindle users will jump in with more help. 

 

40 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Maybe EatYourBooks has potential for such a list.

Eat Your Books allows you to bookmark recipes with pre-sets like “I want to cook this” or “I've cooked this” or “Favorite Recipes” or any sort of bookmark you’d like to set up for yourself like 2024 Christmas Cookies. You can also set up bookmarks for books. I tag all my Kindle books with a bookmark I named Kindle so I can search just those books if I want or exclude them from a search. 
You can also add notes to any recipe. Notes can be personal so only you can read them or available to all users. I try to add a note to each new recipe I make and appreciate the notes left by others. I've added over 700 recipe notes so far. I can edit those notes to update them at any time. 
You can view all your notes, across all books if you wish or search for notes from a specific book or recipe.