Cookbook Shelving and Storage

[Chris Amirault]

While people often comment on their storage and use of cookbooks in the Cook Books: How Many Do You Own? thread, there's no existing thread (I think) on storage, shelving, and so on. I'm wondering where you keep your cookbooks. Do you have an area for ones that you use often? Is it in the kitchen or near it? What about storage? It's an on-going problem for me, and I'd be interested to read how you do it.

[culinary bear]

I was lucky enough to hit IKEA when they happened to be selling BILLY bookcases for 25 pounds each. I have two and I've got nearly 200 books on each - they're very sturdy, easy to assemble, and look good. Adjustable shelves too, which is handy for oversized books.

I tend not to keep books in the kitchen unless I'm using them.

[Jennifer Brizzi]

I have a lot (around 400), and I share a tiny house with a fellow packrat and two madly clutttering children. So cookbook storage is a real problem for me. I seem to be unable to get rid of any of them and they just keep expanding, like lava.

They are definitely in the all-over-the-house category. The largest proportion is upstairs on a five-shelf free-standing bookcase in the small square upstairs hallway. This houses the French, Spanish and Italian collections as well as other ethnic cuisines, (Romania, Afghanistan, etc.), single subject books and "literary" food writing. Books I haven't read yet occupy three shelves of a whole wall of books in the living room, which is made of those cheap shelves on brackets, you know, the kind you put up yourself. I have nightmares that the wall will fall down one day as there are thousands of books on it. It doesn't seem quite secure and I'm not exactly Jill Fix-It.

There are about a dozen under the kitchen counter for easy access, half a dozen on a baker's rack in the dining nook, ditto under the bed, ditto on a side table next to the couch, a box full in the barn, reference type tomes on a small bookcase in the downstairs hallway, even a few in the kids' room pretending they're kids' food books. The bathroom is where I draw the line. If anyone keeps cookbooks in the bathroom I don't want to hear about it.

Well, at least I got column fodder out of my cookbook problem. Look forward to seeing where everyone else keeps their cookbooks. What a great thread!

[culinary bear]

Isn't there a table-ban on Afghan cookbooks?

[Marlene]

I use one of my cupboards with glass doors in my kitchen to keep the cookbooks I refer to all the time. I have three Ikea Billy bookshelves, (they really are great!) in my office upstairs with the next bunch of cookbooks that I refer to occassionally and the rest, I've got packed up in storage. I suppose one day I should get around to going through those and getting rid of some, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it.

[Megan Blocker]

So far my cookbook collection is pretty minimal (only about 25), so it occupies a couple of cubbies on my bookshelf - I live in a studio apartment, and I have one of those room-divider bookshelves from Ikea (I sense a theme) that look like cubbies. So, my cookbooks take up two of the "squares." I've totally run out of room on that bookshelf, though, so I just bought a new, smaller one next weekend. Bring on the cookbooks!

[artisan02]

While people often comment on their storage and use of cookbooks in the Cook Books: How Many Do You Own? thread, there's no existing thread (I think) on storage, shelving, and so on. I'm wondering where you keep your cookbooks. Do you have an area for ones that you use often? Is it in the kitchen or near it? What about storage? It's an on-going problem for me, and I'd be interested to read how you do it.

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When I have a house and my whole collection (over 1000) out of storage, I put them all in 4 very tall (7 feet tall) bookcases. Before I packed them up to put in storage, the space was getting tight, so I know that when I get them out of storage I will more than likely have to get another tall bookcase, as I have collected over 50 cookbooks in the last 2 years since I have been traveling. I had these bookcases in the dining area, and near an easy chair, so it was comfortable reading.

Currently I travel around with over 250 cookbooks. I also carry with me two folding bookcases for them, and I have filled up every inch of space on those. Might have to get another folding bookcase...

Oh, and I have more that I don;t carry around with me, down in my cabin in Idyllwild, CA.

Edited October 22, 2005 by artisan02 (log)

[tsquare]

I have a three shelf bookcase in the dining room, adjacent to the kitchen passage (cased opening, no door anymore - once there was a swinging door, before my time.) Unfortunately, the books overflow to the floor space beside this...and the magazines are in holders lining one wall of the wall-in closet. Not handy. There are food related books in the bookcases in the living room.

(Time to look at Billy, though what I want is a wall of custom cabinetry where the thick shelves are actually thin drawers.)

[Suzanne Podhaizer]

My husband and I have many more books than we know what to do with. Our cookbooks (and other food related books) make up the majority of our collection.

Right now we have two tall, yet skinny bookshelves that hold only cookbooks. Any cookbooks that don't fit properly on the shelves are stacked on top of the shelves or squeezed in on top of the books that are on the shelves. I try to keep the shelves organized by theme (vegetarian books on one shelf, Asian cookbooks on another), but despite my best efforts, sometimes size becomes the most important factor.

All of my food memoirs, history books, etc. are organized by catagory and stacked on the floor against one of the walls of our living room. The biggest book in the catagory is on the floor and the smallest is on top of the pile. It's not the most elegant method for storing books, but at least they're somewhat organized.

My brother-in-law is building us some bookshelves as a wedding gift, so until they're done, this is how it will be.

All of my cooking magazines are on another bookshelf...they take up the whole thing.

[SuzySushi]

I have two tall bookcases in the bedroom devoted to cookbooks. They're my bedtime reading! This also makes it easy to sit on the bed surrounded by cookbooks when poring over ideas for a menu or comparing recipes.

[ruthcooks]

What a great thread!

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And what a great column(Hooked on Cookbooks). For a while there, I thought you were channelling me, although I guess you have to be dead for that to happen. Like you, I:

...have about 400 cookbooks (I get rid of some whenever I near 500)

...used to read them cover to cover, but not anymore

...was a reader from childhood, and sometimes read a book a day

...share your taste in cookbooks, more regional fare than chefy

...find 4-5 recipes for a dish in cookbooks, then make my own

Hello, kindred spirit!

Edited October 22, 2005 by ruthcooks (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Shee-it, y'all are so much more organized than I am. I've got one bookshelf in the little hall outside the kitchen for the really often used books, another down in the basement for the stuff I don't use very often, and an entire shelf in the upstairs hall bookshelf devoted to food reference, broadly defined.

I wonder if we should be snapping photos of these. I'd be very interested to see what's what -- and I would even return the favor and show my dumpy pastry rack of books....

[Chufi]

Most of them are in the kitchen in a big Ikea bookcase (not Billy, but Ivar ) Then there's always a pile upstairs, by the computer, for reference on anything that I'm writing about at that time.

And a pile next to the bed for late night reading.

Another question. How do you organize the books on the shelves? Mine go by country - starting with France, Italy, Spain, then England, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Scandinavia, Russia, Hungary, Austria, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America, USA, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, India. To me this is a completely logical sequence..

Then single subject books, but only if they are really about one subject (a whole cookbook about tomatoes, but not a book about baking or vegetarian cooking, they are in the next section). Then the author's cookbooks that are not about a specific cuisine (you know, the Nigella's ..)

Finally, food history and other food related books.

And finally finally, on the bottom shelf, all those big books that theme-wise, should be on another shelf, but they just don't fit.

[M.X.Hassett]

As I sit here in my living room I count 4 at my feet, 12 on one table, 7 on another table, peaking around the corner 5 on the dining room table mind you these I had to pick out from the various other books they are mixed in with along with countless periodicals. There are also probably 300 or so more mixed in with my other 12,000 books stored in the dining room shelves, bedroom shelves, and the library/basement shelving. I mean hell I can count at least 50 books in open view unshelved without moving from my current seat.

So I have no real section for cookbooks or books for that matter they encompass my mind and therefore my space. Books

Edit: Strangely enough there is no storage in my kitchen for books I will bring the book/s I need for the project into the kitchen. All my kitchen shelves are filled with gadgets and toys.

Edited October 22, 2005 by M.X.Hassett (log)

[M.X.Hassett]

I have two tall bookcases in the bedroom devoted to cookbooks. They're my bedtime reading! This also makes it easy to sit on the bed surrounded by cookbooks when poring over ideas for a menu or comparing recipes.

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An ex of mine used to get pissed and say "DO YOU WANT TO SLEEP WITH ME OR KELLER" needless to say that girl is out of my life.

[rjwong]

I wonder if we should be snapping photos of these. I'd be very interested to see what's what -- and I would even return the favor and show my dumpy pastry rack of books....

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Oh, it's "show and tell" time, ehh? Pretty sneaky of you, Chris ...

I have about a couple of bookcase shelves filled with cookbooks and a box or two of cookbooks that are in the middle of my studio apartment (which is less than 400 sq. ft.).

What's so depressing is getting myself motivated to do a little re-organizing to maximize my space. Uhh ... did I say that I'm a librarian? ...

[SuzySushi]

I have two tall bookcases in the bedroom devoted to cookbooks. They're my bedtime reading! This also makes it easy to sit on the bed surrounded by cookbooks when poring over ideas for a menu or comparing recipes.

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An ex of mine used to get pissed and say "DO YOU WANT TO SLEEP WITH ME OR KELLER" needless to say that girl is out of my life.

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My husband has no problem with that! He pores over the cookbooks with me!

[snowangel]

My kitchen has no room for cookbook storage, but it opens to the living room, where I have a three shelf unit, which is not to wide. The sun room (behind the living room) has another such bookshelf, which used to be devoted to other stuff, but is gradually becoming devoted to cookbooks. Down in the basement, I have 400 feet of bookshelf space. Some old college textbooks (only the ones I really still ove), lots of knitting, quilting and gardening books along with all of our old LP's and an ever growing collection of cookbooks. I make a habit of rotating from upstairs to downstairs.

And, then there are the couple on the piano bench. On top of my knitting basket. And, that "footstool" by my bedside isn't a footstool, but a stack of cookbooks. I'm learning that paperback cookbooks have a place. Easier to read when heading off to sleep. Hot Sour Salty Sweet is too big and heavy to read while laying down!

[Ling]

An ex of mine used to get pissed and say "DO YOU WANT TO SLEEP WITH ME OR KELLER" needless to say that girl is out of my life.

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I've been sleeping with Tony Bourdain for a week now.

[Chris Amirault]

Someone can start another thread on "undercover angels" -- for those Keller and Bourdain fans out there!

Meanwhile,

How do you organize the books on the shelves? Mine go by country...

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Yeah, I deleted the rest, so as not to make such a pointed comparison. Clary, you presume that there is, in fact, an organizational scheme. In casa Castaneda y Amirault, no such scheme exists, I'm afraid!

[Pam R]

Shee-it, y'all are so much more organized than I am.

Not all of us my friend!

I have some books in my bedroom, sharing space with many other things that I love. There are stacks throughout the house - a few in the living room, a few in the kitchen, some in the basement. Then I have two bookcases in my office at work.

The only books I am usually on top of are my baking books - they are on a shelf in my kitchen at work. I would say that 90% of the time I have a couple of cookbooks in my computer bag that I shlep back and forth between work and home hoping that I will get a chance to look through them. And I always forget which location I have left them in.

I have a few really well-abused books that I actually take into the kitchen (the baking ones), but I usually write out ingredients from recipes with a few notes onto scraps of paper so that I don't mess up the rest of the books.

Generally speaking though, I never know where any cookbook is.

[divalasvegas]

My boss has an incredible set up for her cookbooks. Right before you enter her kitchen she has a built in, revolving shelving unit (sorry, but I don't have any real carpentry terms to describe this). It runs from floor to almost ceiling level and has, as I remember, about six or seven shelves. It's really great and gives her or her husband, or guests like me, instant access to her cookbooks. I think the woman has hundreds of cookbooks since her husband says that she has even more downstairs in her basement.

Edited for spelling.

Edited October 23, 2005 by divalasvegas (log)

[Marlene]

My boss has an incredible set up for her cookbooks.  Right before you enter her kitchen she has a built in, revolving shelving unit (sorry, but I don't have any real carpentry terms to describe this).  It runs from floor to almst ceiling level and has, as I remember, about six or seven shelves.  It's really great and gives her or her husband, or guests like me, instant access to her cookbooks.  I think the woman has hundreds of cookbooks since her husband says that she has even more downstairs in her basement.

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Now that I would truly like to see.

[divalasvegas]

My boss has an incredible set up for her cookbooks.  Right before you enter her kitchen she has a built in, revolving shelving unit (sorry, but I don't have any real carpentry terms to describe this).  It runs from floor to almst ceiling level and has, as I remember, about six or seven shelves.  It's really great and gives her or her husband, or guests like me, instant access to her cookbooks.  I think the woman has hundreds of cookbooks since her husband says that she has even more downstairs in her basement.

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Now that I would truly like to see.

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Yeah Marlene that shelving is awesome and her damn kitchen is totally the shit as well. High btu stove, double sink, granite countertop island, more than enough storage space, herb/vegetable garden right outside the kitchen............... I'm really hatin' on her right now.

[snowangel]

I have a few really well-abused books that I actually take into the kitchen (the baking ones), but I usually write out ingredients from recipes with a few notes onto scraps of paper so that I don't mess up the rest of the books.

Generally speaking though, I never know where any cookbook is.

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I take them all into the kitchen. The more well-splattered pages open automatically to the tried and true. Problem is that I ignore the ones I haven't tried, but should.

And, if I can't find the book on the shelf, I know to look under my bed. My friend's have that area under the bed that is littered with shoes. Mine with cookbooks.