At some point, the exact year escapes me, I joined a cookbook club and suddenly I had four new cookbooks, which soon multiplied to eight and twelve since I was terrible at returning the cards on time. What I realized somewhere along the way was that I enjoy reading cookbooks. This began my next phase of collecting. I enjoyed reading about Southern cooking, Shaker cooking and cooking at The White House.
Celebrity recipe favorites soon joined my collection. Everywhere I went I looked for a new book to add to my collection. In 1995 we had a catastrophic house fire and I lost most of my cookbooks, I was devastated, years of collecting went down the tubes. At some point, I realized that by haunting antique stores and flea markets, I could replace many if not all of my cookbooks. One that I have never replaced is my 1890′s White House Cookbook.
In the past nineteen years, I have gone on to a whole new phase of cookbook collecting as we changed our eating habits. During the Atkins years, it was all about meat and Barbara Kafka’s Roasting Cookbook offered me many ways to make my meat taste really good. All my baking cookbooks became strictly reading material, and I added several slow cooker books to my hoard.
The Atkins years are over and I revel in my collection of cookie, cake and bread books. I love reading Jim Fobel's "Old Fashioned Baking Book" and "Just Like Grandma used to Make" by Lois Wyse. Natalie Dupre sold me on Southern Cooking long before Paula Dean made it a household word. Every vacation was an opportunity to pick up a new cookbook.
A trip to Vienna gave me "Imperial Austrian Cuisine" by Renata Wagner Wittula. Our cruise to Bermuda added "The Royal Caribbean International Cookbook". My all-time favorite cookbooks for actually cooking are "50 Ways to Cook Anything" and Good Housekeeping’s paperback "Cooking with Susan". I still love to read "Cooking for Madam" by Marta Sgubin about her years cooking for Jackie O.
As we were getting closer to retirement I began trying to downsize. I can’t stop collecting cookbooks but I have made a deal with myself. If one comes in, one must go out. It makes me think really hard about adding a new book, which old book will I part with. Luckily I have several by authors who will remain unnamed that I am happy to see go. I have fallen victim to impulse buying and realized after the fact that these books add nothing to my collection.
How many cookbooks do I have? Several hundred I am sure and while I don’t expect the collection to grow I know it will evolve. The wonderful thing about cookbook collecting is that it is a reflection of our own personality. It is also very affordable, you don’t have to be wealthy to have a fantastic cookbook collection as a matter of fact if you buy second hand or from discount shelves, it can be very inexpensive.
Collecting cookbooks doesn’t take any special knowledge, you don’t have to spend a lot of money and you can start slow and add on as you find your favorite author or type. Maybe you like baking cookbooks, there certainly are plenty to choose from. You might want to start with A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goodman. The sky is the limit. If you want older books you can search second-hand bookstores or antique stores. For new books, Amazon has an amazing variety as does Barnes and Noble.
No two people will ever have duplicate collections. Let friends and family know you enjoy cookbooks and they will turn up among your Christmas and birthday gifts. Becoming a cookbook collector can become an obsession, a delicious one. All you need is the space to store your collection.
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