I swear, cookbooks (well, books in general) is the only thing my husband and I regularly have spats about. But it's not my fault! I swear they have been breeding while I am at work.
I ran out of trying to designate one place for all of my cookbooks. On the shelf in my living room (the large shelf, with the college and highschool yearbooks) I have the notebooks of recipes, like the one from my bridal shower- vegetarian recipes contributed by friends and family who were scared for me to marry a vegetarian; the recipes passed down from my Great-Grandmother, and folders of recipes clipped from magazines from as far back as the late 70s (given to me by my mother).
I move too often. Some are still in a box in our office, like Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and the all-encompassing Madeleine Kamman.
In the kitchen on the fridge are some old Julia Child, some various Cooking for Two books, and Betty Crocker.
On our old game shelf (they had to be moved to make way!!) are the random but intriguing cookbooks I love to read, pick recipes out of but never make.
In the front of the other bookshelf is the pile of cookbooks I checked out from the library, well, except those I have been copying recipes from onto my computer. So I guess there is a stack beside the monitor too.
But you should see my database!! It's so organized! I have recipes divided up into folders based on what part of the meal they belong to, and then the ethnicity or the type. Some recipes are copied into different folders. I'm being trained in using MSAccess where I work, and will probably transfer them all to an actual database with structure and searching/printing capabilities.
Then I have my various food journals, in various places. The most recent is on the shelf next to my regular journal. Guess which one gets written in more??!?!?
I am fortunate in one thing- I am not a wealthy woman. This limits a lot of my cookbook cravings to holidays, where my step-mother in law happily dumps millions of cookbooks on me as presents (They're probably saying "She's so easy!" but it's really what I ask for!!), and for my monthly library trips. Libraries have cool cookbooks, and often have the ones from the 70s that have been forgotten, or those unique regional books that were probably donated.
I too enjoy curling up with a cookbook. Its something about research for me. I love to plan and find perfect recipes even more than making them (I was the same in college- I loved researching for papers, but didn't enjoy finishing the research as much).
Hmm... seems to me I haven't gotten all the way through the Millenium Cookbook yet. See ya!
~~Shimmer~~