How big is your collection of cookbooks?

I have quite a few cookbooks and the pile is always growing. I keep mine in the metal drawer below my oven (the one that is meant for baking dish storage). I am always on the look out for new cook books as I love books in general. I find a ton of good recipes online, but sometimes I just like to open up a good old fashioned cookbook.
 
I'm definately a cookbook addict. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I have over 1200 at last count. I do get recipes off the internet, but a real book beats a digital one every time in my book (haha). I love the pictures, the stories, the themes and of course, the recipes. Ever so often, I'll try to weed some books out. I've given some to thrift shops and sold a few, but I have a hard time giving my books up. Some of them I've never cooked a recipe from, but whilst weeding, I'll browse through the book and decide I need to keep it. I have even found duplicates.

I also have vast piles of recipes I've printed out off the computer. I have several big, fat three-ring binders where I've sectioned and labeled printed out recipes. And I still have huge stacks of unfiled recipes. I also check cookbooks out of the library to see if I want to buy the book. Our library district allows one to have 50 books checked out at once. Some of them I've renewed multiple times because I just can't bear to part with them. I wonder if there is such a thing as Cookbooks Anonymous.

My husband tolerates my cookbook collection because he's a real nice, laid back guy. Also he really likes to eat and is extremely fond of my cooking.
 
Dianemwj said:
I'm definately a cookbook addict. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I have over 1200 at last count. I do get recipes off the internet, but a real book beats a digital one every time in my book (haha). I love the pictures, the stories, the themes and of course, the recipes. Ever so often, I'll try to weed some books out. I've given some to thrift shops and sold a few, but I have a hard time giving my books up. Some of them I've never cooked a recipe from, but whilst weeding, I'll browse through the book and decide I need to keep it. I have even found duplicates.

I also have vast piles of recipes I've printed out off the computer. I have several big, fat three-ring binders where I've sectioned and labeled printed out recipes. And I still have huge stacks of unfiled recipes. I also check cookbooks out of the library to see if I want to buy the book. Our library district allows one to have 50 books checked out at once. Some of them I've renewed multiple times because I just can't bear to part with them. I wonder if there is such a thing as Cookbooks Anonymous.

My husband tolerates my cookbook collection because he's a real nice, laid back guy. Also he really likes to eat and is extremely fond of my cooking.
Click to expand...
 
You did say 1200? :eek: Wow! I thought my 158 was a lot. Clearly not. That means you have over 7 times the amount of cookery books that I have. That must take up a lot of space. Hope you live in a big house (or apartment)!

I'm a bit the same as you, in that I find it hard to give them up. There are some books which are beautiful artefacts in there own right. For example, I found a copy of Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook by Alice Waters, in a charity (thrift) shop here. Its a first edition (mint). Its illustrated throughout with stunning coloured block prints by David Lance Goines. I'd find it tough to give that away!
9780060175832.jpg


At the other end of the scale is my broken backed, bolognaise stained 1970's edition of 'Poor Cook' by Susan Campbell and Caroline Conran, which I've had since student days. How could I part with that?
poorcook.jpg
 
morning glory said:
You did say 1200? :eek: Wow! I thought my 158 was a lot. Clearly not. That means you have over 7 times the amount of cookery books that I have. That must take up a lot of space. Hope you live in a big house (or apartment)!

I'm a bit the same as you, in that I find it hard to give them up. There are some books which are beautiful artefacts in there own right. For example, I found a copy of Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook by Alice Waters, in a charity (thrift) shop here. Its a first edition (mint). Its illustrated throughout with stunning coloured block prints by David Lance Goines. I'd find it tough to give that away!
View attachment 1059

At the other end of the scale is my broken backed, bolognaise stained 1970's edition of 'Poor Cook' by Susan Campbell and Caroline Conran, which I've had since student days. How could I part with that?
View attachment 1060
Click to expand...
My house is actually quite small, but it does have four bedrooms and since there are just the two of us, two of the rooms are dedicated to books. One for regular books; novels, non-fiction and such. and the other is lined with bookshelves filled with cookbooks. When I was in Plymouth, I haunted the charity shops looking books by Robert Goddard (which are hard to find here) and for cookbooks of which I bought several and posted them home.

That Chez Panisse book looks lovely. I've never seen The Poor Cook before, but it looks like something I'd enjoy and could really use at times. I also have cookbooks I keep merely for their beauty such as Ad Hoc At Home by Thomas Keller and a treasured copy of The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater I bought in England from which I've only cooked one recipe. And like you, I have the broken spined, stained, scribbled in work horses which automatically fall open to the pages with recipes I use most often.
 
Last edited:
Dianemwj said:
My house is actually quite small, but it does have four bedrooms and since there are just the two of us, two of the rooms are dedicated to books. One for regular books; novels, non-fiction and such. and the other is lined with bookshelves filled with cookbooks. When I was in Plymouth, I haunted the charity shops looking books by Robert Goddard (which are hard to find here) and for cookbooks of which I bought several and posted them home.

That Chez Panisse book looks lovely. I've never seen The Poor Cook before, but it looks like something I'd enjoy and could really use at times. I also have cookbooks I keep merely for their beauty such as Ad Hoc At Home by Thomas Keller and a treasured copy of The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater I bought in England from which I've only cooked one recipe. And like you, I have the broken spined, stained, scribbled in work horses which automatically fall open to the pages with recipes I use most often.
Click to expand...

Ah, that explains it - you have two libraries!
Chez Panisse is an American book so perhaps you might get it from a library. Its worth looking at, for the wood block prints alone. I too have a copy of The Kitchen Diaries. I can't recall whether I've actually cooked any of the recipes! I'll flick through it and see. Its a beautiful book and he writes so well. Have you seen him on TV?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom