A look at Dining Examiner's cookbook collection
If I were to put a number on the cookbooks I own I would approximate it to be about 200. I am a cookbook addict and need to attend the Betty Ford Clinic. My cookbook compulsion links heavily with my other addiction of purchasing plates, platters and pitchers. (Alliteration intended) Unfortunately there is no support group for cookbook addiction – so I’m reaching out to you to see how many other fellow cookbook junkies are out there.
The fix
When the Jessica’s BiscuitCookbook Catalog would arrive my body would literally SHAKE with anticipation. What NEW cookbooks by my fave chefs or cooking instructors were being offered at strong discounts? I would move on from the new cookbooks on to the sale section, cookbooks for $5 or less. I would circle the cookbooks I wanted, narrow my choices and place an order within the hour. And, technology, wonderful technology, giving me Amazon.com – where else can you get a cookbook for a $1 or less.
The lust
I am grateful that my lust for the printed recipe has not left me washing automobile windshields at traffic lights or down at the ports selling my wares to visiting sailors for cash to support this addiction. Nowadays, I receive many cookbooks for free through my food styling for the authors and through the cookbook publicists who forward advanced copies. I still buy cookbooks.
I remember meeting a gal at one of my cooking demonstrations who admitted her addiction had her up to 2,000 cookbooks. In retrospect 200 cookbooks isn’t that bad although I must come clean and admit to my subscriptions to Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, Saveur, Sante, Plate and Intermezzo magazines.
Brethren
My foodie sisters and brothers out there you know the need, the want, the uncontrollable compulsion and lure of the cookbook. To you that new cookbook is like the best novel ever written. Whether you cook from it isn’t relevant, it is subconsciously tasting the ingredients and imagining the aromas as you turn from page-to-page.
You can’t pass a book store without lingering 30 minutes in their cushy chairs perusing the latest Lidia Bastianch or Ina Garten tome. My best cookbook find was a GORGEOUS book co-authored by Michael Ruhlman, author of The Making of a Chef and Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin Restaurant called A Return to Cooking at Ollie’s Discounts. The cookbook was not priced and there was no other copy, so the checkout gal charged me $3.95. Even used, today, the book is $17.92 and they are reissuing it in May, 2009 in paperback.
Space, the last frontier
Space in my home is at a premium because of this addiction. The breakfast room shelves are filled (see photo), cookbooks are both on top and under my desk and in the office bookshelves. Let me not forget the 10-15 Asian cookbooks I lent the high school ProStart culinary team I’m mentoring that have to come back into the fold. And the cooking magazines fill all the other nooks and crannies.
At times I try to be good, I give away cookbooks to deserving foodies only to have the husband return from a flea market or yard sales with double the number of cookbooks given away. My house has become the last frontier looking for space and the cookbooks are like the Tribbles from Star Trek, who like bunnies, keep multiplying.
So answer my question, how many cookbooks do you own?
Food Trivia: Today, January 3rd is Chocolate Covered Cherry Day - I'm sure I have a recipe somewhere.
Love to Cook – Join my Love to Cook group on Facebook http://tinyurl.com/6uy2ds
Comments
Dara,
I have over 200+ cookbooks also. My favorites are Cook's Illustrated, Southern Living and the Joy of Cooking.
Great Post.
Mia
Have you considered joining CookbooksEtCetera on Yahoo groups?
BTW I have 600 books and counting, the addiction is wordwide. Michelle - Australian Cookbook COllectors Society
It is very comforting knowing we are not alone. Just knowing others suffer just as we do, gives us hope and strength to....try to stop? Nah, I don't really want to quit. I counted over 600 about a year ago. My children have told me time and again that they do not share in my love for cookbooks and recipes. When my time draws near, I will find some worthy recipiant and donate. Very good post. Thanks.
Loved your article and I can relate since I have just under 2,000. I am a member of CokbooksEtCetera on yahoo groups and like Michelle said you should consider joining as you'd be a perfect fit there.
I haven't counted my cookbooks. The prospect is a bit scary, besides, I don't want dh to actually have a number!
I have slowed down in my collecting, mainly concentrating on the autographed ones at this point.
Favorites? My 1962 Joy of Cooking, Field of Greens, Breads from LaBrea Bakery, any of Steven Raichlen's books.
I signed up at the yahoo group Cookbooks etc - have to get real work out of the way before the play. Thanks for let all of us cookbook junkies know about the group.
I have a collection much like yours!
My favorite cookbook is Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food :)
Dara, there are hundreds, thousands of us cookbook collectors out here! You described our addiction well! I have just approved your membership at CookbooksEtCetera - a yahoogroup, and we are happy to have you with us. I have around 2000 in my collection and continue to buy them like there is no tomorrow. The only cure for this addiction is to just buy more! - lol
Yes, Virginia...there is a support group for cookbook junkies. It is hard to pick any one cookbook as a favorite.
My collection is at about 600 now, including my own cookbook Cooking with Love
I love to review cookbooks at well on both my blog
and my website, only other foodie junkies like ourselves can relate...
Oh, about 1000 now, give or take....and they are fighting for space all over my house....shelves, floor, ironing board, baskets and tables. I have made a resolution this year to thin the ranks....but wonder if I will really be able to do it...How do you part with children?
BTW, welcome to the CookbooksEtc group!
Only 200? My last count a few years ago, over 3000. Have them nestled in bookshelves, closets, boxes stored in the garage & camper we no longer use.
It's an addiction, but a really fun one!
I prefer the "old" ones-one favorite is the "Picayune Orginal Creole Cookbook"- 13th edition.
Sue in N. Calif.
I have probably close to 800 at this point. Last time I counted it was around 600 and that was quite awhile ago. I am also a member of CookbooksEtc at Yahoogroups. Been there a long time now - 10 years?? Welcome to our little group on the net. There is no cure for cookbook addiction...fortunately! I read them from cover-to-cover. I re-read many too. They are all over the house. They used to be really organized. Not now. They are everywhere - bathrooms, livingroom, kitchen, bedroom and in the car.
I probably have 12 cookbooks??
Not that many!
You know, I probably only have about20 or 30 cookbooks. But I'm with you on the magazines. I have stacks and stacks of them. Everywhere. Also, I have a binder of handwritten and printed out recipes that's absolutely overflowing...
At present I own 1106 cookbooks, I like to collect the old ones.
I probably have 50+ cookbooks and about 1,000 printed recipes in binders and boxes. Plus a few hundred saved on CD's.
I'd say I have maybe 100, but I have over 1,000 of my own that I just printed! www.cinagrofarm.com
I only have two dozen or so cookbooks. I often drool over books in stores, but don't end up buying them because I usually find myself getting most of my recipes online anyway (due to cooking based on what's in my fridge) I love books with beautiful pics and modern recipes. My boyfriend calls them "food porn," and I probably will buy them when I have a house to put them in.
I love this post. At last count I had around 300. I decided a few years ago that I couldn't buy any more until I cooked something out of every one. That lasted about 3 months...lol.
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