You need to be a little more specific... what genre? style? cuisine?
__________________ Invention, my dear friends, is ninety-three percent perspiration, six percent electricity, four percent evaporation, and two percent butterscotch ripple
1) Don't buy or consume any foods with the word's "Chef" or "blend" on it.
2) Don't buy any book with a picture of the author that's more than 1/4 of the dust cover size.
In other words, stay away from trendy books or ones by famous stars (Suzanne Summers comes to mind...) You can usually find these a year later at the discount bin for $2.99.
Depends on what you are looking for? The Joy of Cooking is a good all around cookbook. For recipes and the hows and whys try Shirley O Corrihers "Cookwise".
Like Jim said whats your genre? style? cusine?
........................The Joy of Cooking is a good all around cookbook. .......................
That's what I heard, but I have been sorely disappointed with the new version that I bought last year. I've heard the old ones are the good ones, so I've been keeping an eye out at the used book stores.
cookbooks 
