[diane]

I would never suggest downsizing unless it is a matter of life and death. You will mourn for those books lost. My son, has put his nips on my Entire Library when I drop dead. I cannot claim organisation, I have had to move them too often, but the gardening books and the cooks books are more less in place. Otherwise motor bikes sit cheek by jowl with History of the English Speaking People. (Winston Churchill). Be Bold with Bananas (Bonita) appears fairly relaxed with Larousse, and The History and Use of Coffee is snuggled up with a 1900 Atlas of the World. Language Most Foul (a dictionary) keeps winking at Anthony B., and The Devils Dictionary keeps an eye on The Oxford. Aha, said one fellow, you can always tell a person by their books. His hypothosis ended in complete confusion. He ended up with Samuel Pepys Diary in one hand and Bridget Jones Diary in the other. hahahahahahaha.

[Yvonne]

Originally Posted by diane

I would never suggest downsizing unless it is a matter of life and death. You will mourn for those books lost. My son, has put his nips on my Entire Library when I drop dead. I cannot claim organisation, I have had to move them too often, but the gardening books and the cooks books are more less in place. Otherwise motor bikes sit cheek by jowl with History of the English Speaking People. (Winston Churchill). Be Bold with Bananas (Bonita) appears fairly relaxed with Larousse, and The History and Use of Coffee is snuggled up with a 1900 Atlas of the World. Language Most Foul (a dictionary) keeps winking at Anthony B., and The Devils Dictionary keeps an eye on The Oxford. Aha, said one fellow, you can always tell a person by their books. His hypothosis ended in complete confusion. He ended up with Samuel Pepys Diary in one hand and Bridget Jones Diary in the other. hahahahahahaha.

Diane,

It seems to me there is an association for you between the lexicon and the lettuce, entymology and encyclopedic cookery.

And your books seem to paired like good fellows in a train's compartment traveling well together.

As for Pepys, he and Jones had similar obsessions with how to's:

"At noon to Anth. Joyces to our gossips dinner; I had sent a dozen and a half of bottles of wine thither and paid my double share besides, which is 18s. Very merry we were, and when the women were merry and ris from the table, I above with them, ne'er a man but I; I begin discourse of my not getting of children and prayed them to give me their opinions and advice; and they freely and merrily did give me these ten among them.

1. Do not hug my wife too hard nor too much
2. Eat no late suppers
3. Drink juyce of sage.
4. Tent and toast
5. Wear cool Holland-drawers
6. Keep stomach warm and back cool
7. Upon my query whether it was best to do at night or morn, they answered me neither one nor other, but when we have most mind to it
8. Wife not to go too straight-laced
9. Myself to drink Mum and sugar
10. Mrs Ward did give me to change my plat"

[diane]

Oh Yvonne, what a gift to life you are, I haven't enjoyed anything so much for a long time. Thanks.

[bigwheel]

Well I keep all three of my cookbooks covered under a layer of dust. I do not see why anybody would need to stock hard cover books when there is so much info available in cyberspace. I mean if I turned yankee and decided to make quiches or something..I just axe yall how to do it. Who needs a steenken book? Now if you collecting em or they got sentimental value or something like that I surely understand. Works the same way on sausage making books. The info available in cyberspace has way done outpaced any compendium of books which could possibly be arrayed on the topic. It be the same ailment which afflicting other print media..newspapers for example. Course being a little overly progessive hurts their sales too I think. Just my dos pesos of course.

bigwheel

Originally Posted by mudbug

This question was inspired by Kimmie's post at the "form over function" thread.

We all have a collection of cookbooks which probably doesn't get smaller. How do you sort them? Where do you keep them (kitchen counter, cabinets, closets, stand alone shelves, shelves on the wall)? Do you have a cookbook on "display" in a plate holder? Do you have blank recipe books you write your creations in or keep them on your computer? Do you use them all or do you trade unused ones at the used book store?

[blisstone]

I keep them in the pantry and in my basement office (read hovel). They are not organized but somehow I know where to find what I'm looking for.

I have downsized on the books since my move. I donated a lot to the local library of where I used to live that way I knew where the copies could be found. Now where I live they do not accept donations except to resell them to raise funds. They said that it now would cost them more to catalog a donated bood then to get it new. I don't know what this world is coming to.

As for the Rolodex...I bought one of the big ones that is completely circular. Every time I make a recipe off a book I imput in the computer, print it out to the proper index card size and put it in the dex. If I haven't made the recipe but its from a magazine I print out the recipes I'm interested in and then I can dispose of the magazine 9well in theory dispose of the magazine).

I haven't done this yet but when you make the recipe you can put the index card in a small plastice sleeve so it doesn't get too too "crusty".

Its true that since the internet I buy less books. But I need to be more disciplined about printing. Lately I've been stationing the laptop in the kitchen while I cook and I know that this is an accident waiting to happen.

[UNH12345]

Am crashed and no longer works but i have my data files backed up! Help does anyone have this program that might be able to open my files and get my recipes for me!
It is called Cookworks.5 by pinpoint or cookbook 5.0
lorrainef@metrocast.net

[Culprit]

Originally Posted by mudbug

This question was inspired by Kimmie's post at the "form over function" thread.

We all have a collection of cookbooks which probably doesn't get smaller. How do you sort them? Where do you keep them (kitchen counter, cabinets, closets, stand alone shelves, shelves on the wall)? Do you have a cookbook on "display" in a plate holder? Do you have blank recipe books you write your creations in or keep them on your computer? Do you use them all or do you trade unused ones at the used book store?

My kitchen includes a small built-in cabinet in one corner (also used as a telephone stand) that I use as a cookbook library. The cookbooks are sorted according to their dominant subject matter. Regional cookbooks by the region they represent, or by subject (e.g. Cakes and cookies, Diabetic Recipes, etc.). I don't display my cookbooks. My counterspace will never be large enough, no matter how big a kitchen I have, to waste space displaying cookbooks. My computer is the mechanism I use to write recipes, but I do keep a notebook on hand in the kitchen to make notes when something comes to mind that I want to file in the computer. I use all my cookbooks, even if it's just to get an idea. I am not a disciplined recipe follower. I will ordinarilly follow the recipe closely the first time I use it but I don't feel very creative following someone elses directions and, if I believe I can improve on it, I do. Of course, the improvement isn't always better....
The only cookbooks that I discard are those that I pick up at a used book store and review at home and find it less interesting than it first appeared, or a cookbook that someone else gave me but that isn't useful (I'm not ungrateful but I do have limited space) for my needs.

[Egg_Benidict]

In your dusty bookshelf

[firiki03]

Originally Posted by mudbug

This question was inspired by Kimmie's post at the "form over function" thread.

We all have a collection of cookbooks which probably doesn't get smaller. How do you sort them? Where do you keep them (kitchen counter, cabinets, closets, stand alone shelves, shelves on the wall)? Do you have a cookbook on "display" in a plate holder? Do you have blank recipe books you write your creations in or keep them on your computer? Do you use them all or do you trade unused ones at the used book store?

I value my cookbooks a lot so I put them upright in my book shelves according to the cuisines of the region first and then country along with files containing photostated copies of frequently used recipes. This way my cookbooks are kept in pristine condition.

[Jenyfari]

I store my cookbooks in a bookcase along with all my other books and they probably take up at least one third of the space in the bookcase. I have more cookbooks than anything else although I have to say that I do more perusing of the books than actual cooking.

[cookermacgregor]

my cookbooks, maybe 150 or so, live in one big book case plus in piles on the floor in front. They are organized every century or so, but I rarely have trouble finding the one I want. I think if they were uber organized I wouldn't stumble across say Classic Indian Cooking on my way to finding The Bakers Dozen Cookbook. It helps to keep things loose and spontaneous, an atmosphere conducive to the best kind of cooking.

[DC Sunshine]

Cook books - my papery battered friends that act as my stress therapy. They live everywhere - cupboards, bookshelves and they don't gather dust. I keep some out on a spare chair out on the decking (undercover!) which rotate on a regular basis for when I take my work stress break (I run a business from home). Cup of coffee and a ten minute read - ahhhhhh - and I'm ready to face work again (and the numb nuts I have to talk with every day on the telling bone).

Organised? Nope. Catergorised? Hardly! Enjoyed? Immensely

Could I give one away? Don't even suggest it!

I was lucky enough recently to be given a stack of really nice ones when my parents downsized lately to go into a retirement village - they'd been in the family home for forty years and their collection of books (cookery and otherwise) is enormous. No need to guess which ones I've been reading lately! It's like fresh blood to a vampire hehe

Although I do need more bookcase space now. I've been casting an eye at my husbands National Geographic magazine collection from the last 30 years....maybe its time they went....muahahaha

[chefant]

YouTube - chef anthony first full episode

[Scottintexas]

I just read this very old post but thought I'd offer some further advice on scanning and saving recipes from magazines. Search the internet for an OCR (charachter recognition program) that will convert a scanned image into a real document that you can edit and format to fit your current electronic data base. I find it extremely helpful with getting recipes into my Access DB.

[Kiwicook]

I must have around 1400 cookbooks by now. When we did some house renovations and made a large study, we have a lot of built in bookshelves made and my collection as well as all our other books went there. And then...

Husband got a new job 2 1/2 years ago which involved moving countries. Give away cookbooks? Would I give away my children?? We are currently in our second rental property here so moving that many books each time is a trial. However, we've bought a whole lot of book shelves, including a couple we moved from home. I currently have my most used books and all my reference books in my study. The rest are shelved in an upstairs family area, or in shelves in the bedroom. Occasionally some books get demoted upstairs to make way for new books and review books.

I'm a food writer and do a lot of cookbook reviewing so my book tally keeps growing. With the review books, I often give these away if they won't serve as reference books or are not the sort of books I would use. My 28-y-o son snaffles all the blokey books and the easy-recipes-with-great-results books for when it's his turn to cook for his flatmates. Likewise cookbooks for cooking with/for kids go to friends with young families.

I think we have one more house move to make - either back to our own home in New Zealand or we will buy here in Australia where we now live. It will need plenty of wall space for bookshelves.

Someone mentioned using the Dewey system to catalogue one's books. I tried that. But unfortunately with all the difference sizes, it became difficult to house them using the same logic. I found myself standing in front of the bookshelf the other day wishing I could just Google my collection for the recipe I was looking for. I suppose in 10 years' time that won't be such a silly idea. Books will come with a digital index which we will add to our cookbook database.