How do you store your cookbooks? - Page 3

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"

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

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

rolodex

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.:cry:

Looking for old cooking computer program

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

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....:look:
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.

In your dusty bookshelf

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.

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.

the books

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.

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

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.

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.

I have a whole bookshelf of cookbooks in the dining area (it's an apt.). The top shelf is the small cookbooks, usually the old ones sponsored by knudsen, reynolds, or pillsbury.

Shelf underneath, my cooking magazines, and also the old magazines from the great grandma's day (woman's day, etc. I REALLY enjoy those).

Shelf underneath is the old novelty cookbooks that I treasure and pull out on a gloomy day to cheer me up. I also read (or look at) those ones while I'm doing my business.

Shelf underneath, I got the instructional books, On Cooking, some reference, and my vegetarian/vegan books.

Shelf underneath, I have my baking, desserts, and chocolate books, followed by my Italian, then Japanese cookbooks.

Wow I don't have any mexican or chinese cookbooks... or thai. Hmmm....

Good Japanese books are hard to come by, but I found an amazing country cooking one at the discarded books pile at the library. It's where I became interested in Japanese food.

Oh, I also have 2 boxes full of recipe clippings from my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. I would run out with these during a fire. It also has my oldest cookbook in it, a Gold Medal Flour book from 1910. It's nice to have a cookbook that was made BEFORE the convenience food takeover. It actually had quite a few french recipes in it.. well, french technique anyway.

I used to store them in my office on a shelf. Only taking them to the kitchem for R&D. This was an attepmt to preserve the condition. Now they sit on a shelf in our patio room. They don't get used near as much as they once were but it's nice to be able to display the ones I've purchased/collected or been given with the Recipe manuals I've put together for each of the restaurants/kitchens I set up. :)

I've decided the best place to put bookcases is in a hallway. In newer homes, hallways are 42-48" wide, which leaves plenty of walking room if 10-12" deep bookcases are used to line one side, preferably floor to ceiling. I've got 400-500 cookbooks, and I now have room for all of them as well as file boxes for recipe cards, and they're handy to the kitchen.

Cookbook Storage

My collection has had a recent serious cull as we are moving, however my vintage books are in a bookcase in the office.
The 500 or so other cookbooks are boxed and indexed in the garage.
I use 'Collectorz' software to catalogue my books. Its a great help when searhing for something I dont have as it searches Amazon, LOC and Powells amongst other libraries world wide, making it a great reference as well.
My copies of Donna Hay, Gourmet Traveller and Delicious Magazines are also catalogued and stored in the house as I am constantly referring to them.
I just got a copy of Maggie Beer's 'Maggies Harvest for christmas (Australian). 2 inches thick with a padded cloth embroidered cover. Soooo beautiful. This one wont go on a shelf. The sort of book you sit in bed and read while you are eating chocolates!
When I move I will probably open up a little shop and sell cookbooks and ephemera, new and old.
I plan to also have a small kitchen installed so that we can test recipes on a friday and share the joy of cooking.
I do also have a book holder in the kitchen sagging with lots of books and recipes that I am always trying to get around to cooking.

my cookbooks

We are remodeling our kitchen and my sister in law asked were I would display my books. Most are too worn, used & held together by big bands...The others by Julia and one by The Frugal Gourmet can but I only have a few!
But I joined a cook book club & got 4 books for $3! My FAV was "The Professional Chef-The Culinary Institute of America!($1!!!):lips:
I have been so bored in the kitchen lately and will be ordering many more cookbooks! They will be taking the place of my other novels-since I really don't have time for a real novel!!!!
I am soo amazed at the numbers of volumes some of you have! I am SO jealous! Please don't give them up but... if you must... I would love ANY hand me downs because I love to try new and tasty treats w/ my family!:smiles:xo

me well i just keep mine were ever i have room, right now there in rubermaid containers becsue im in the process of moving back home/moving to a new apartment closer to home now that im done with my externship.

My boss had a really neat set up in his home kitchen, he had a ledge or shelf going the whole way around his kitchen and put his cookbooks on it. he didnt have too many but the ones he had he put face out and then had wine or olive oil bottels inbetween them.

Since I posted my first reply to this thread back in 2006, I have moved from Miami to North Florida.
My cookbooks still reside on the stacked book shelves, but now they are in my den, next to my computer desk.
I belive I have added about 20 more books, and I have managed to computerize 4 binders full of my own recipes. For Christmas, I gave my kids each a thumb drive with some 40 years of my creating recipes.

i a have a tall pile on my floor, i dont have much room for a bookshelf in my room

Though I do have a shelf for my books (cooking and otherwise), the cookbooks don't really have a style of organization yet since my collection is small. Only in the past year have I really found my love for cooking so the collection hasn't gotten too out of hand just yet. My favorite though is a recipe collection from the local farmer's market (the North Market) in Columbus, OH. It's got a nice selection of recipes from the merchants that sell their goods in the North Market.

Only just found your love of collecting cookbooks? You might want to get a bigger shelf. It really is addictive! You will soon run out of room.
I am thinking of erecting a small clothesline in my kitchen and suspending some of the less valuable books from this.

Maywen....Cookbookaholic

As my collection of recipes grew I thought of storing them in the computer.
And I also save the recipes found in the net.
I am a good cook, but I don't usually try recipes on my own.

ohhhhhh i love cookbooks

drrooooooollllls at the thought

At Bruces house I have some books in a shelf next to my side of the bed, at my place i have cookbooks on shelves, on the coffee table, on the computer table, on the computer, in the kitchen drawe on the bookshelf in the lounge, bookshelf in the bedroom, on the floor next to the bed, on the bed when im sleeping solo in baskets ......... pretty much everwhere. and right now im putting in to boxes as we are doing what shroom did , but in a different way , we are moving in together, but none of my books will begetting lost in transit.
Bruces sister is wonderful and often picks up books for me from garagesales. Ohh and i forgot my cake decorating books are startring to inhabit any space thats left over , plus the number of books in my car as well.

Cookbooks are one of the very best things people can give me for gifts

Gather Ye All Cookbook Collectors

OK all of you cookbook hoarders,
I thought I should let you know there IS a cookbook collectors group on yahoo. Just have a look in the yahoo directory for CookbooksEtCetera
I cant post the URL as Chef Talk wont let me yet.
Great group, organised regional events, as it says, etc!
I am in Auatralia and I still get heaps out of being a member of this group.
Highly Recommended

Maywen

There is a bookcase, in the living/dining area, where I keep the most frequently used cookbooks. The ones I don't use too often are in the loft atop a side by side set of file cabinets. I have some books which I need to find a new home for, since they have not been used in years.

I'm an academic, so I'm very crazed about books and their organization. I never, ever cut up magazines, either.

First of all, you people looking for space, go figure out where the local college profs buy their bookshelves. The ones you're looking for are just barely the height of your books, and just barely their depth, and no more. You can get twice as much on shelves like these, and they're usually very cheap (and also unfinished: just put a lick of paint or shellac or whatever on them).

Second, I like alphabets. I do things by region/nation (China, Japan, Louisiana, Spain, etc., just to oversimplify). Then within this, I do authors: Lin before Tropp before Yan, etc. Then in one space you put the special subject books (cakes, chocolate, etc.), and in another you put the weirdly oversized things that don't fit elsewhere, and so on, again by author. Magazines go in their own places, by magazine title and run.

What happens if you organize this way, i.e. by author or some other arbitrary system rather than content as such, is that you are forced to remember what everything is. Pretty quickly, you WILL remember, you'd be surprised. And every once in a while you will stumble on books you forgot you had, and then can browse with a lot of pleasure, as though you'd just bought the book. What's more you know where to put that new beauty you just bought.

All in all, I think many of you are missing the point of a hyper-organized system sans computers (which crash, don't load, get coated with raw chicken, etc.). It's for browsing: you know where it is, just up above the blue one, oh no, hang on, maybe it's just to the left of this red one, and hey, what is this red one anyway? Huh, gotta dig into that.... That's the point: not instant retrieval, which is just mechanics or having a secretary, but constant meandering, which is about having ideas.