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Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? (Part 1)


maggiethecat

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13 more for me. Ah, the used book stores of Southern Vermont! The spiral-bound recipe booklets from the Time-Life Foods of the World series are finally showing up, bit by bit. I'm now complete on Africa, American Cooking, Japan (scored both hardcover and spiral this time), British Isles, and Spain & Portugal. Also Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art), another Italian cookbook by Ada Boni, Marguerite Patten's Cakes & Baking, and a paperback with 4 food-related mystery stories.

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Some people here have many cookbooks. Some over 100 and others over 200. If you have this many do you keep them all out on bookshelves? Do you use many of them regularly? Or, like me, do you use only a few regularly and the rest are just fun to have and read from time to time?

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Some people here have many cookbooks. Some over 100 and others over 200. If you have this many do you keep them all out on bookshelves? Do you use many of them regularly? Or, like me, do you use only a few regularly and the rest are just fun to have and read from time to time?

yep

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Some people here have many cookbooks. Some over 100 and others over 200. If you have this many do you keep them all out on bookshelves? Do you use many of them regularly? Or, like me, do you use only a few regularly and the rest are just fun to have and read from time to time?

All of my cookbooks and other food related books (Fisher, Trillin, Freeling, etc) are in the living room for easy access. The books on wine are relagated to the 2nd bedroom. I probably have 10 books that I always use. The rest get pulled out if I'm looking for an inspiration, or someone has been talking about it in a thread (i.e. The New Way to Cook).

When you have many books, do you find that you forget about a book for awhile and then, "rediscover" it?

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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476, not counting duplicates! I did sell some a few years ago at a yard sale to make room so I could buy more. I have them arranged according to subject matter, but they are all over the house, in my car, and at work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have about eighty. I can't get an accurate count because some are in storage until I have more room to keep them with me. I don't cook from most of them, but can't bear to part with them. I have stopped buying until I have more room, or at least cooked from more of them than I have. I remember the first cookbooks I ever bought, special from the Book-of-the-month club. I think they were a dollar each: Mastering the Art of french Cooking, Larousse, Spice Cookbook (I've used that one quite a bit) and The New York Times Cookbook (this also got a lot of use, for a long time).

A whole separate issue is what to do with Gourmet going back to the 60s.

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You knew I'd be back. I have several new books including California Dish by Jeremiah Tower, Laure Werlin's new The All American Cheese and Wine Book, My French Kitchen, the newest America's Test Kitchen edition and Paul Bertolli's soon to be classic Cooking by Hand. The last I gave to mamster for his birthday, but I'll get my own, too. Our move is done and about 1/3 of the books are out and we are bookcase shopping. Somehow the space keeps filling up. Because I sold some prior to packing up, you don't have to change the number. Just trying to stay current. The amount of cookbooks being published between now and Christmas is astounding and even passing over the giftie and vegan types, I will be getting about 75. Someone get a restraining order.

Judy Amster

Cookbook Specialist and Consultant

amsterjudy@gmail.com

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Umm....last count 246 :blush: But I gravitate to only a few: JC's The way to cook, Best of the Junior League ( I know, I know...but they have great soup recipes), The Best Recipe (Cooks Illustrated). The cake bible, and a huge amount of church fund raising cookbooks ( great for canning and ethnic cooking). I tend to read cookbooks before bed. Insures a good nights sleep and creative dreams.

I live in a culinary wasteland...so I MUST cook to maintain my sanity. Thank God for travel and ingredient sources on the internet!!!

After taking a mouthful of boiling hot coffee, what ever you do next is wrong.

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I have 187 gracing my book shelves. They are in the kitchen, in the living room and in the bedroom.

I do read them, for inspiration, for ideas, for fun, and sometimes make something from them.

It is good to be a BBQ Judge.  And now it is even gooder to be a Steak Cookoff Association Judge.  Life just got even better.  Woo Hoo!!!

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Forgive my presumptious foolishness, but...

is there any way of collating this information? Possibly an Egullet Top 100? Top ten french? Top Restaurant cookbooks (i.e. Babbo, French Laundry)?

I for one would be very interested, and possibly influenced, by the result.

And I wonder what Amazon would pay for such information?

Can anyone else spell 'group discount'?

"Gimme a pig's foot, and a bottle of beer..." Bessie Smith

Flickr Food

"111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321" Bruce Frigard 'Winesonoma' - RIP

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I received the new Jessica's Biscuit catalogue yesterday. Lots of new releases. I'm sensing a buying spree. :shock::smile:

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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The spiral-bound recipe booklets from the Time-Life Foods of the World series are finally showing up, bit by bit.  I'm now complete on Africa, American Cooking, Japan

Have you checked Ebay? They always have tons of those cookbooks up for auction. I myself wanted The Good Cook series and obtained almost the entire set in just a month or so....and of course, now there are complete sets up for auction, but to tell you the truth, there's a couple of volumes I know I'll never use, so I am very happy. I have seen tho often, the Foods of the World series (i'm sorry...or whatever it's called :wacko: . If you go there, just type in the name of the series with quotes around it....you'll often find lots of them available! Good luck! :smile:

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I love this topic!!! It's very nice to know that I'm not crazy with my cookbook buying sprees! Not that I ever make anything from them (once in a while I do), but I do love just reading them and looking at the pictures!

Add my 110 to the tally. You said not to count foodie magazines, didn't you? Too bad.....my count would be well over 300. :blink: Hmm...wonder if that makes me a fire hazard?

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I actually am in the process of writing an article on what the trends are in the buying and using of cookbooks today ... in fact, there are a number of conclusions to be drawn by publishers of the cookbooks ...

And, yes, I, too, needed the "validation" this thread has so generously provided ...

I own some 78 hardcover/softcover cookbooks .... please add those to your total ... I have stacks and stacks of "Bon Appetit" and "Gourmet" dating back to the 80's ... sometimes I have the courage to sell them to used book stores who want to buy them ... but, still more and more are piling up ... kind of reminds me of a line by George Carlin, to the effect that "we need stuff and then have to buy an new house just to hold our stuff"...

Then, too, I have also begun to buy used cookbooks and, even more than that, books on food writing (which I am currently doing myself) ... every time I see something used online, I distract my husband while clicking on "Go To Checkout" and, when it arrives by mail, I feign ignorance ... perhaps it is a gift? I offer by way of explanation ... then quickly hide the invoice ...

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Hello,

You can add 80 from me, the most 2 recent being Catalan Cuisine by colman Andrews and Fish Talking by Pino Luongo bought at one of those bargain book closeout places. they both look great, but I haven't cooked anything from either one. They also had a book by Larry Forgione that I was considering. Anybody recommend his book(s)?

Actually, I'm sure this has to have been mentioned in this thread, but, especially for those with large collections, what proportion of your cookbooks have you actually cooked from at least once? For me, I'm guessing somewhere around 80-90 percent, but that leaves at least 10 cookbooks I haven't cooked from, and my collection is much smaller than a lot of others who've weighed in.

Also, I love the idea of a top 100 list.

And, is there forum discussing new cookbooks? (I admit I haven't looked.

Give me a minute, I'm going to go look)

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

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44, 320.

I turn my back for one little week... :biggrin: and find that we are still up to our usual tricks! Heyjude, we know you're a hopeless case. Revel in it.

8.39 miles. That will get me to that Portillo's in Lombard.

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

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