Jeez... I'm a hoarder, huh? I rarely follow a recipe, but I love to read them from cover to cover and sort of "glean" ideas for dishes. Plus, I love those crazy "Ladie's Auxiliary" cookbooks from the 50s and 60s - some of the stuff in there is insane. My favorite find? A Luchow's cookbook - I still remember the sauerbraten from when I was about 5 years old.

I have 2 cookbooks - the original Betty Crocker that my sister gave me as a gift, and my spiral bound, plastic-sheathed notebook that I keep my printed recipes in. When I find a recipe online that I want to try, I print it out. If it's a keeper, it's kept in the spiral notebook. Cuts down on the clutter this way!

I have a handful of cookbooks, but I only regularly use 3 or 4 of them - and frequently only 2 of those 4. However, I love getting ideas for creating my own dishes by reading through the others once in awhile.

i only have a few because i mostly check them out at the library. I only buy after I know it has stuff in there I really like.

Slowly but surely I am winnowing my collection of cookbooks from a full shelf to a handful of the ones that are the most useful.

We are downsizing all of our book collections:we donate our books because we feel it is a mortal sin to throw them out in the trash.

I keep it around a dozen by periodically chucking ones I'm no longer using. Before I do that, I go through and pull out pages. I always write comments (to the SHOCK of my preschooler--"Mommy, you're WRITING IN A BOOK!") on the pages, so it's easy to pull the keepers--and usually one or two untried recipes I'm still kidding myself I'll get around to someday.

It may be a mortal sin to throw them in the trash, but, uh, into the paper recycling they go. My cookbooks have stains on the pages and flour in the seams--not really donation-worthy, unless a family member wants one.

I only have about 10 cookbooks (I think, I'm not at home so I can't go count) but I have a lot of clippings! I also have a folder on my computer that I save recipes from online into, and that has A LOT in there.

So though I clicked "a handful" it feels like a lot more than that.

We own a box full of cookbooks and it lives in our garage. It was put there on the day we moved into our current home and has remained on the same shelf to this date. (Perhaps this will give me the much needed impetus to finally donate its contents!) I'm horrible at following recipes. I tend to improvise a lot while cooking and become very impatient with long lists of ingredients or numerous detailed steps. I have found the internet and whatever produce is in season to be the best source of recipe ideas.

Onepot
http://onepot.wordpress.com

"Horder?" I prefer "Archivist" Keltrue is my kinda cook.

This post is timely for me as I just "culled" my stash of cookbooks. It reminded me that I do not actually use them as often as I "intend" to. Most days, I'm online looking for recipes or clipping from a magazine.
I have vowed to find the perfect cookbook "stand" for my kitchen so that I can be more inspired to use them in lieu of just hopping online and printing a recipe. I've also decided to dedicate a shelf for some of the ones I treasure the most!

I love cookbooks and I have quite a few. I'm not home to count them, but I think I have around 25. I try to use them all by choosing unused ones to cook dinner from when I plan my weekly menu. I keep them all in a small bookcase in my kitchen and I have no plans to get rid of any. I have, however, tried to slow down on buying more.

Lots of books, but even more magazines! Most of the books I love, and cook (or rather bake - it's the cakes recipes that I look up) from. People buy me recipe books for birthdays/Christmas, and I don't have the heart to part with a gift (it generally seems to be Jamie Oliver books that stay on the shelves here). I might not cook directly from them - but I look through them often, as a reminder of flavours, methods etc that I might be looking for. I'm now recipe clipping to Evernote for the rest of the stuff - no more endlessly trying to remember which web page a recipe was on, and eventually I plan to scan used magazine recipes onto it too.

If I let myself, I would have dozens of cookbooks. My kitchen is one of those pictured above--it's tiny and I don't have room for bookshelves around the house, so I limit my pile to around 12 or so right next to the kitchen. Having them neatly stacked on top of our IKEA shelf just beside the kitchen encourages me to browse them more frequently than if they were elsewhere.

But I have to say, Evernote has changed my recipe life. I clip recipes all the time from The Kitchn, and this program makes it easy (highlight want you want to copy, and click their "clip" button which is easy to install at the top of your browser). It saves the recipe AND preserves the original URL. This keeps me from having so much more kitchen clutter! And I never feel bad about clipping something I've never tried before since it won't take up any space!

I had great cookbooks but left some of them behind in a move :( I am sad I did it every time, but they were too heavy to take with me (plane moving)

Family members keep giving me books that I don't use but feel like I have to keep for a while. The most recent one was a HUGE hardcover book about bacon that I probably wont use that often if at all ...

I have a bookshelf devoted solely to cookbooks. Fortunately I have the floor space for it.

But -- the reason I have so many is because my interests/uses for them are so broad. There's the shelf of heavy-rotation books -- the little Laurie Colwin, Bittman's HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING, and the four "what to do with the farmer's market bounty" stuff. The things I use every day.

Then there's the Moosewood shelf -- the one devoted solely to soups and salads, the one that's the international-foods book, their "Celebrations" book.

And then there's the "international cuisine" shelf -- Japanese, Irish, French, Italian, Thai. And the regional cuisines too -- New Orleans and New England.

Then there's the baking -- cupcakes, cookies, ice cream. The Ben and Jerry's recipes book I won in college for eating an entire Vermonster sundae at the local B&J scoop shop. The Serendipity 3 cookbook that actually has the recipe for frozen hot chocolate.

Then there's all the oddball books -- the grilling, the cocktails, the big book o' hors d'ouerves, the books on canning, jam, and preserving.

I swear to you all, I make at least one recipe out of each and every one of these books on a consistent basis, whether it's the cheese pasties from the Moosewood international book, the clam chowder from one of the New England books, the cookies from the Mrs. Fields book, the sun-dried tomato dip from the hors d'ouerve book, the Tuscan bean soup from the Moosewoods, the pink petal crepe dessert from the Japanese book...and you will get that Ben and Jerry's book away from me only by prying it from my cold, dead hands.

I'm definitely a collector. 20 in my apartment alone and at least 10 more at my parents that accidentally got left behind during my move out east.

I like to collect vintage cookbooks, culinary memoirs, cultural cookbooks, and cookbooks with great flavor and cooking ideas. I avoid the pretentious ones from "celebrity" chefs and instead look for old church and Ladies' Aid cookbooks and ones that focus on seasonal or comfort cooking. My cookbooks mainly serve as an inspiration. My baking books, now those are recipes I actually use verbatim!

Of course, I'm something of a bibliophile in general, so I don't think the "hoarder" label should apply to anyone! : )

I collect them, but do try to get rid of the ones I don't use. My favorite is titled "A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes" and was given to my grandmother when she married my grandfather nearly 70 years ago. I have never made anyting out of it (a majority of the recipes feature pimentoes and no seasoning) and oven temperatures vary from cool to very warm. It's hilarious to read, though!

We keep our cookbooks out in the living room as well. And even though the cookbook section is the most tempting one in the bookstore for me, I've learned to show restraint and not buy too many niche books. My Joy of Cooking and Martha Stewart books get the most rotation and have the spine splits to prove it.

The majority of my recipes seem to come from online though, so I've started putting the print outs in a spiral binder with plastic sleeves. I've also been making an effort to update the recipes with written notes after I've made them.

I used to have two large shelves full of cookbooks - on my last move, I donated almost all of them. The ones that I only ever use for one or two recipes, I saved the recipes in an electronic file, and I keep a printout in my kitchen.

Now, I have just a few of my most-used cookbooks on a very small kitchen shelf, and the ones that are more reference/every so often are in a larger shelf in the living room. The problem is that, now that I have room, I find myself considering buying more...!

I have an entire (skinny!) bookshelf of them, too (okay one shelf is knitting books). They do not live in the kitchen because unless they could go into a cabinet (ha. someday.) I think they would get too dirty in there.
I have about 10 I've bought myself. The rest are gifts and many were my grandmother's, so those I shall never part with. Whenever I think I have too many I consider my mom -- I think she has WELL over 100 and then decide I can keep them all.

I am about the same as empress.. I have about 50, maybe a few more, maybe a few less. Every month I probably use about twenty five.

I have about ten I don't use at all,four from fancy restaurants/ chefs (Susanna Foo and Daniel, White Dog, Field of Greens). I keep them b/c they were gifts from people who I love and love me, and b/c once in a long, long time go through the effort and steps to try one and LOVE it. The others are books that I have used tremendously at other points in life and imagine myself going back to one day or I picked up abroad.

I keep them in my living room, but the 1-3 I am using that week I keep in the kitchen. I have a book holding shelf that I use.

my picture is above! ha! (red electric kettle on counter).

the library is honestly what helps keep my collection down that and their price tags. i have a few other books that didn't make it into the shot (2-3 usually) that sit above the fridge from the public library. i hang onto them for a few weeks and back they go.

I have about 15, but only use 2. The New Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated and Veganomicon, but I rarely use that one. I find that most cookbooks are too expensive, given the number of recipes that I would use from them on a regular basis.

I have about 10 and am in the process of getting about 5 more :) I keep them out of the kitchen and on a shelf in my living room as well. My kitchen just does not have the space needed to house them unfortunately. I do however enjoy having them in my living room, I'll pull them off the shelf and curl up on the couch and peruse recipes until I find a bunch that grab my attention.

I also rely on the internet for recipes a lot more than I used to. I like how I can find anything at the touch of a button and sometimes I'll look for 3-5 recipes of the same item and then compare and contrast and create my own.

I've also found the library to be a haven for cookbooks. They always seem to have the newest ones on hand and I'll check them out and then update my online cookbook with the ones that I think are keepers. It keeps my bookshelves less cluttered and my wallet has a little more in it at the end of the day!

I have a few hundred and none of them are going anywhere anytime soon :-)

I just culled down to the ones I really use--or love to read. It felt good, as culling always does.

Way too many -- I have an endnote library dedicated to organizing them, if that's any indication! I love to cook from recipes, and rarely cook the same thing twice, so it is fun to pull out a huge stack, flip through, and figure out what's for dinner.

As an academic I have way too many books, period. For the most part the cookbooks live in cupboards lining the hallway, but spillover are in the office.

PS - also very keen on the last option (except not "zip" on the books, obviously) and so - Jamie Oliver's new App has reviews like I've never read before...

@khbnelson what a great idea, i'd never thought of going to the library for cookbooks.

only lately have i started to cook from them, i used to just browse for ideas every now again and ogle the pictures. it was online recipe resources that really got me into cooking, and i'm still loyal to them.

if i'm watching a good tv show i'll write stuff down, and keep a much-loved notebook of things i want to make one day, or recipes i've acquired from friends, family, freebie cards at the supermarket (thanks Waitrose!)

Um
Then I think my family may have a problem. growing up I remember my mother having an entire bookshelves of cookbooks. These were all new at the time, including local church cookbook, neighborhood cookbooks and alike now spanning 50 years.

The most recent count has placed this at over 500 cookbooks, and growing, and this does not include the pantheon of family collected recipes scribbled down in notebooks and index cards

And now my wife and I are building our own library to reflect our own taste and style. Ahhh the dream to have the bookshelf wall in the kitchen to house them all.

This addiction may be genetic

I use the library for cookbooks all the time, and the internet too. I do have one cube of my expedite for cook books though. I love the pictures and the inspirations...
and some of them (especially my James Barber cookbooks!) are just good to read for all the advice between the recipes!

As much as I love the look of a well-stocked bookshelf, I find that the internet meets my needs better in this case. I often get onto food blog tangents and end up who knows where, 10 links deep into a maze of food blogs with interesting ideas.

That, and allrecipes.com . Something for every occasion on that site.

I have maybe 30--> most are in the kitchen, (i have small bookcase), the rest in the livingroom.

I try to cull them...but I am in love with my cookbooks. I can cull just about anything else (except maybe fabric).

it's true that I use about 10 of them a lot, 5 of them a little, and the rest barely- but I do read almost all of them for inspiration and fun.

I can't wait for the new vegan cookie book to come out :)

(i will though, probably not buy any more non-vegan cookbooks, it's not worth the expense for a book that I cannot fully utilize)

I collect them, but in truth, mine have been gathering dust for a little while. I got an idea just this week from another website that I like to frequent to choose a cookbook and cook out of it for a week. It's kind of a brilliant idea, considering most of my cookbooks feature specific world cuisines and share similar ingredients. Could really help in my weekly meal planning!

I've never bought one as I use the internet to research recipes. But I've been gifted a few cookbooks.

I totally blame genetics. Everyone in my family hoards books of all kinds and we all abhor the idea of ever culling our books. That's how I've managed to go from needing a single tall bookcase for my books to needing three (and every shelf has two rows of books) in the five years since I moved out of my parents' house. My cookbook collection is no different, although to this point most of them have been gifts from my grandmother, who knows I love to cook.

I do try to either use them to come up with a rough menu for the week (I won't necessarily follow exactly, but I'll use them for inspiration and to keep my meals as fresh and interesting as possible), or cook out of one book for a few days. The first year that I lived on my own, before I accumulated a bunch of cookbooks, I alternated between pasta and stir fries with the occasional curry thrown, and now I hardly ever cook the same dinner twice in a month.

If I'm buying a book new, I always start at either the library or a brick-and-mortar bookstore where I can sit down with a stack and see which ones are useful. It doesn't take very long to skim a cookbook and see if it's the sort of thing you'll use.

Of my 50 or so cookbooks, I regularly use 10, all of which are falling apart and rebound with duct tape. There are a few which I only use for their decorative value (avocado-bologna casseroles of the 1950s? I shudder at the idea of eating that stuff), but the others just contain recipes I make infrequently, like books about charcuterie or canning.

OK, now I am going to do something I have been wanting to do for years! I am going to count how many cookbooks I have!! If no one hears from me for a couple of days it is because I am still counting!! I actually have a way of organizing them that I really like!!
1. Informative-equipment, grocery shop, make your own,
pantry, spices
2. Antique- by time frame, by date of print
3. All-day- breakfast, brunch, cereal, cold, lunch, picnic, soup, salad, sandwich
4. All-in-one-casseroles, crock pots, one dish, slow cook
5. Basic numbers- 1-2-3-4-5 ingredients, 365, timed
6. Beverage- coffee, smoothies
7. Bite-size- appetizers, fondue, hors d' oeuvre, snack, sushi, tapas
8. Entertain- buffets, company, crowd, entertain, family
party, potluck, quantity, socials, weddings
9. Healthy- diet, fiber, fresh,lo-cal.,lo-cholesterol,natural
organic, raw, vitamin
10. Make ahead- freezer, refrigerator
11. Meat-beef, chicken, pork, etc.
12. Meatless- beans, pasta, seafood, vegan, vegetarian
13. Menu- meals in minutes, monthly, mix-and-match
14. One main ingredient- cheese, egg, fish, fruit, meat,
nuts, popcorn (I have two!), rice, shellfish, tofu,
vegetable, yogurt
15. Small kitchen- blender, boating, camper, can opener,
cook top, electric fry pan, freezer, hot pot, one oven,
processor, skillet, toaster oven
16. Special needs- allergic, diabetic, dairy-free, gluten-free,
lactose free, salt-free, sugar-free, wheat-free
17. Speed cooking- easy, fast, quick, simple
And then there are these:
18. Barbecue- camp, charcoal, gas, indoors
19. Baking-breads, homemade, quick
20. Canning-food, gift jars
21. Children- craft food, picture,words
22. Christmas-decorate with food, dinner, gifts to make
23. Desserts- cakes, cheesecakes, chocolate, cookie,
cupcake, muffins, pies
24. Famous chefs- by person
25. Famous restaurants- by name
26. Foreign- by country
27. Series- Southern Heritage, etc.
28. Standard- Betty Crocker, Good Housekeeping, etc.
29. Spiral- alphabetical by churches, organizations, etc.
30. Textbook-catering, culinary arts, etc.
Oh my goodness, least you think I live in a warehouse, we have a 1,000 square foot house with a 10x9 kitchen which I love!! With one and a half bathroom!
(and not a single cookbook in either one!!!) We have three 6 foot tall bookshelves that wrap around the dinette area and one tall one and 2 short ones under the window in a sun room. Funny thing is, it's not sunny in that room very much!! And I use one every day but never follow the recipe exactly!! Ridiculous, I know!!

I have over 100 cookbooks, and I'm only in my 30's. This year, I decided to try a project, one that would make me accountable for each cookbook I own. I have to cook one recipe from each cookbook I own in the 2009 calendar year, resulting in 2 different cookbooks per week and I blog about it. I also cook once a week from my collected recipes from magazines, newspapers, internet, etc. I am only 11 weeks away from the end of the year and I only have 44 recipes to go.:)

I keep all of my cookbooks on a bookshelf in our home office. In a small apartment, it's the only place available!

I have (so far) 67 cookbooks that I absolutely adore, and keep in a living room shelf. Some girls buy shoes, I buy cookbooks by the dozen. But I actually use all of them (or most of them). I go through fases with each of them, when I cook a bunch of recipes from one or two books then move on to another one. I don't know... I guess I don't like to prepare the same recipe over and over again unless it's a family favourite. I have tried already about twenty different brownie recipes, and although I have my favourites, I can't help myself: I must experiment with new ones. :)

I have well over 50 and thought this particular sickness effected more cooks!

I recently got married and actually registered for cookbooks. I have not unpacked all the books or even our kitchen items. However, I purchased a bright red bookshelf to keep in the kitchen to store the cookbooks which I am hoping will keep me organized and on track. Although, I am already late with the Kitchen Cure and will not be posting my week 1 items until I return from a conference next week :)

I have about 12. Few years ago. I stop buying more cookbooks by photocopying them from the library. And only copy the recipe I have cooked and liked. They all go into 3-ring binders, and I got 2 1-1/2" binders. My rule is that, I only buy a cookbook if I would cook more than 20% of the recipe. A lot of times I find that I only like 1 or 2 dishes from one cookbook. Why waste the space?

I have 37. I will say in defense that I am serious about cooking and cookbooks are a very helpful source of inspiration and reference. Writer and journalists often have well over 100 books. Why set limits on serious cooks? Is cooking not serious enough to warrant large sources of reference? Really, I'm disappointed by limiting tone of this topic.

@zuzupetals @juju73 good ideas! i should do something comparable with mine to make use of them and branch out a bit more.

I don't think there's a particular number that counts as too many-if you use them then that's fine, if you haven't used them for ages/ever then think about paring down. I have 26 cookery books that I use regularly (at least once a month, in most cases once (or more) a week). I sorted them out last week and found that I have cooked about 20 recipes from each book, I cook ten of those regularly, and am still finding new recipes to try within my own collection. 2-3 times a week I try a new recipe so it is worth it. Last week I got rid of 3 that I didn't really use. I'm happy with this. You don't need to keep them all in the kitchen though, I keep one for quick reference (conversion table, cooking times etc) and the rest live in the dining room to be taken to the kitchen when used.

Hmmm...I may have a problem :) At last count I had more than 200 cookbooks.

I love to read them in bed and dream about the potential results, but I don't cook from them as often as I'd like.

I suppose I really should try to enforce some rule about not buying new books until I've cooked something from my previous purchase, but alas, I'm all about instant gratification ;)

I have at least 150, I stopped counting. I had a closet that I turned into a cookbook library just beyond the kitchen in the office in my old house. We are renovating an older home and will eventually have to build in a new cookbook shelf in the kitchen. I do need to cull them and get rid of things I don't or won't use, but it will always be a large collection. Am I the only one who loves to curl up with a new cookbook on a cold day, hot cup of tea, and just dream of meals, baking, etc??? I love to read cookbooks for fun!

I have several hundred "modern" cookbooks and then an antique/vintage collection of over 100. My dream is to someday have a full wall in my kitchen for shelving them. For now, they take up a full wall of book cases in my craft room.

I have about 55 cookbooks at one time I had over 200 and they were stacked in my pantry. I needed the space and I had a few I never cooked from and another bunch that I only liked a couple of recipes so I took them all down, decided which I couldn't live without. and sold the rest on E-bay. I did copy those few recipes I liked or really wanted to try but hadn't had the time etc. onto a disc so that I can look those recipes up on my computer. I was left with about 28 books....and you guessed it started buying new ones again lol

My cookbooks are also not in the kitchen; they are housed in the buffet in our dining room, with wine glasses and an odds-and-ends drawer. The ones I use almost daily (Betty Crocker Cookbook, Better Homes & Gardens, Church cookbook from my grandmother) are on the top shelf alone. The others are in a drawer in the bottom, and I go to them for inspiration, or when I'm having a party and need a new idea. I probably have too many, but I don't make a habit of giving away ANY books, cook or otherwise.

(see... I knew I wasn't the only one!) Hoarder schmoarder. :)

I recently moved from New York City to Portland, Oregon. I'm in the publishing business and I promote cookbooks, so my collection in New York was huge--over 500. They were in every room of my 825 square foot apartment. I moved about 300 personal cookbooks and another 50 that are part of my professional everyday cookbook life. When I moved into my new home, I had large bookshelf bookshelf units created to house my collection in one place. Then I launched a cookbook review blog and suddenly it's out of control again.

I'm a serious foodie both professionally and as a hobby, so many of the cookbooks I have been collecting over 40 years, are there for reference. But many I cook out of over and over again such as THE SILVER PALATE COOKBOOK, MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING, all of the beautiful Lee Bailey cookbooks, at least three of Lidia Bastianich's Italian cookbooks, Marcella Hazan's Italian collections, the dessert books of Rose Levy Beranbaum and Maida Heatter, and Jamie Oliver's many fine books too. My rule of thumb for keeping a book is that I have to cook at least one recipe from the book or it has to be there for reference. I'm considering finishing the basement of my new home and building bookshelf units to house the overflow that is arriving now. I do give cookbooks away--mostly to friends, who really appreciate them. I'm not sure they actually use them, but at least I now they are getting a new home.

I can't throw a cookbook away - I still have the first two I ever bought (James Barber's "Ginger Tea Makes Friends", and the "Tassajara Bread Book", both bought in 1971) and the few hundred I've bought since. I cherish them all, but if I were OBLIGED, I could probably (just barely) survive with plus/minus ten of them. :-)

Over 50 and a bunch of magazines series about cooking

I am with you - a hoarder! Don't you love A16 - it was the first place I went when I visited San Francisco in September - it is fantastic!

Oh, goodness. I don't know exactly how many I have, but all the books in our 500 sq. ft. condo live crammed on two skinny Ikea bookshelves, in the "hallway" (aka: tiny area between living room and bedroom).

I have 5 or 6 textbooks from culinary school (which see more use than a normal person might give them), only three bread-devoted books (for my bread-making blog), several must-haves (two Joys of Cooking, Mastering The Art of French Cooking [Vol 1 only, and vintage], Silver Spoon, etc.), and several assorted chef- or restaurant-specific tomes. I guess there's about 25 or 30 total, but now I'm intrigued enough to count them when I get home. There's the occasional staple-bound booklet, too.

I use them all reasonably often, and precious few see heavier rotation than the others (mostly JoC, and Bo Friberg's The Professional Pastry Chef O_o ). I've been known to sit down at the table with a stack of 10 or 15 when doing research, like I'm at a library or something.

I'm still trying to get rid of the 3 Rachel Ray cookbooks that were gifts; I have never once cooked from them, and refuse to throw away brand new books (or any books, for that matter).

ABreadADay.com

Goodness, a few hundred and growing... sigh. I love each and everyone. Personally, I think they breed in the dark! I've given away (in the past) probably close to 100. For the horders or collectors, ebay is a great place to get some really wonderful deals on cbooks you have been searching for!
How many do I use, I never really stopped to check? I can say I have been through each and everyone and am (with a good degree of accuracy) able to go to the correct book when I am looking for a certain recipe. I often plan menu's around one cookbook a week, yes, I keep track of which books I've been through and which recipe I've used, what I liked, what I changed and what I would change. What can I say, I love to Cook and Bake!
My advice is to become a devote of food blogs, if you don't want to collect or hoard. Blogs are a wonderful source of information, inspiration and recipes! Step by step guides are fun and many professional chefs contribute as well!
My most treasured books are those that were copied from my Mother, Grandmothers, and Great Aunts! Don't let your family recipes fade away, get them recorded anyway you can!

I probably own around 50 cookbooks...give or take a few. I only use a small handful of them on a regular basis, but I do enjoy getting ideas from all the books. I also have a bad habit of printing out recipes that I find online. I have enough printouts to fill several binders too.

Okay, I am definitely a hoarder. I have about 1100 right now, and I don't intend to get rid of any. They feed my soul, and while I don't use all of them all the time, I do go back and read them.
I love to read cookbooks as novels, almost. I do cook from them and get lots of ideas from them.

I thought I only have a handful 10-25 but it turns out I have about 25 cookbooks, plus 3 binders of recipes plus 2 clips of "to try" recipes on the side of the fridge. Outside of my kitchen in other bookcases I have numerous "cooking" books, like Ruth Reichl's books, "A Homemade Life" by Molly Wizenberg, "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" by Jane Brocket and so on and so on. I use a lot of recipes from various blogs and online sites as well. I love to cook new foods and often my husband will say "Can you please make something in the top 200?"...yes, he has a list.
Last year I pared down my cookbooks to only the ones I use...my current favorite is Alice Waters "The Art of Simple Food".

702. About. I use them. A lot. (Still have the first one my mother-in-law gave me when I was first married.) This is going to sound ridiculous, but my cookbook count was not as bad a I thought it would be!! Really!!! At first, I forgot I was suppose to count them, and I posted something else, then I started counting them and then I forgot to finish counting them and posted some more things and then I forgot to finish counting the cookbooks because I was still getting finished with my "pantry" (two 6 foot bookshelves) and kitchen cabinets!! Does this ever happen to anyone else??? When I realized what was happening, I decided to start from top to bottom, left to right in my kitchen!! Maybe I should put a strobe light where I left off working each time!!!lol Cookbooks counted, "pantry" done and cabinets getting in great shape!! (Don't forget under the top cabinet cleaning like I did. Have to finish those!) You have no idea how much this has helped me!! I am so happy to know others are doing this at the same time!!

98percent of the cookbooks were either gifts or I bought for .99 or $1.99 or $2.99 or the most I will pay for one for myself is $3.99 at thrift stores. We have one store that you can buy a whole bag of books for $5. Once I paid $18 for a new one as a gift for someone getting married. I went to one of my favorite thrift stores a few days later and 7 or 8 more in the same series were $1.99 each!! Never more!! Never more!!

I have approximately 60 cookbooks from a wide variety of cuisines, 2 binders full of recipes, I regularly borrow cookbooks from the library as well I get many recipes from food/recipe websites and food blogs.

I also began a tradition several years ago whereby every time I travel to a new city or country, I purchase a cookbook of local recipes or if I visit a famous restaurant which I enjoyed and they happen to have a cookbook of their recipes for sale, I will add that to my collection.

Since most of our trips involve experiencing local flavors, buying a cookbook allows me to bring home a piece of that country with me and I then attempt to recreate some of my favorite food experiences at home. I also inscribe that cookbook indicating where and when it was purchased and which meals I particularly enjoyed.

100 , I love cook books! They are what I read, where I find information and inspiration. Occasionally I weed them out, but I am generally very selective in what I add to my collection, so they tend to be reference books I want to hang on to. My best tip is the library. I usually don't buy a book before I give it a test run from the library. If I don't want to return it when the due date is up, or I find I keep barrowing it over and over, it goes on my "to buy" list.

We moved into our new house in August and all of my cookbooks (25 ) are still in a plastic bin, in the corner of our dining room. It's the only box of stuff that I haven't found a place for yet! And yes, I consult most of the books - right now I have 2 of them out on my dining room table:) My cookbooks run the gamut from Japanese to Cuban cooking.

Ideally, I would love to keep the books somewhere in the dining room or kitchen.

I also have tons of cooking magazines and lots of recipes are saved onto my computer desktop.

Well, I've qualified for the hoarder category then.

I've got three bookcases filled up with cookbooks. But I'm ok about that. I love them, read them, and use them. Most of them.

My problem is with the ones that rarely see the light of day. Each time I pick out the ones that aren't pulling their weight in the kitchen with the plan to donate them, I start leafing through the books and get all re-inspired to cook out of them. How to be brutal and not get seduced by the book all over again?

It is heartening to read that so many still cherish and collect cookbooks! In this age of cooking via internet and TV chefs, this is great news for the publishing industry.
In answer to KT's direct question: I have approximately 15,000 cookbooks, from the late 1960's through 2000. As a newspaper food writer for those years, I was sent review copies of every mainstream cookbook and then some. For 25 years, I was lucky to live in a house with a large lower level which eventually became a library for the collection; not all books I necessarily would have bought for myself, but a great reference for a food writer.
Now all those books--and I-- have moved from NYC upstate and the cookbooks (minus about 100, the most cherished) , packed in book boxes, are in a local warehouse. No library that I have contacted has room for the collection. Culinary libraries and schools who might be interested want a list--with catalog numbers--of the books. I could spend the rest of my life on the later project but--frankly--I'd rather be cooking! Seriously now: anyone have any suggestions for a Good Home
for a whole lot of Good Books by (mainly) Good Cooks?
If so, please email me at scriba123@aol.com.

I have more than 200 cookbooks and five big binders with recipe cutouts from newspapers and magazines.
I find it very very difficult to throw out or give away cookbooks; I keep buying cookbooks that I love for my daughter and for friends.
OK, so I am not cooking from every cookbook. And yes, I never follow a recipe exactly. But I just love reading cookbooks, gathering ideas, thinking about food.
To learn about different cultures through food is a wonderful thing and some weeks, we make a world trip, just by having meals from all over the world!

I love you all. I have close to 150 cookbooks. Two of my four ikea bookshelves are dedicated to cookbooks exclusively, one for cooking the other for baking books.

My husband is the true hoarder. I tried to get rid of some of the cookbooks and he wouldn't let me. Ok, so I've probably got over fifty. Some are reference works that I use all the time. Some are souvenirs (I've got one in Portuguese, and a dictionary to decipher it with). Some were gifts, some I read for inspiration. Some are older than I am. At least a handful functioned as survival manuals when I moved to Tokyo and tried to cook and eat like a native. They're as much an example of social history as they are culinary reference. But the ones I treasure most are the recipes I've gleaned from family members' hand written cards, notebooks, etc. and put into a database.
Hey, I'm a librarian. Databases and books are what I do. Oh I did get rid of one annoying one from a famous restaurant because the recipes just didn't work. They were not tested, and things like the proportions of sugar to liquid for a syrup were flat out wrong. Sheesh.

Oh no.
I should stop reading this
I've just seen several books mentioned that I want to look into. . . .
help!

People
Don't throw cookbooks away.
Give them to a local thrift store, charity rummage sale, what have you. Then some other poor fool like me can buy them!

I have some that I love and will keep....but most of the time I find recipes online so I guess it's kind of silly to keep them!

I am totally of the computer age. I own one "cookbook" which is really more of a reference book: "Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?" Gifted to me in college by my dad. I also have a card file of tested/favorite recipes, a few printouts I want to cook, and a *significant* word file of recipes to try out.

I usually cook one new recipe and one old recipe every month, at least. And when choosing the old recipe, I try to cull through my card file. Gotta make room for my new favorites!

Suzannehamlin- would it be possible to call several local high schools and see if they have a cooking class and will take a lot of the boxes per school. I have donated books that way and they were very glad to get them! The school could keep some of then and then give the rest to the students to take home and keep!

u say hoarder like it's bad, lol! actually, I plan 2 eventually cull them a bit. My faves R the hometowns, church, etc., the garage sale find w/plastic windows 4 those 3x5 idex cards and clippings from food boxes, unique simple ingredient finds and the Meta Given's 2 volume set (the Bible.)

Had to join in this conversation. So glad I am not the only one with 300 plus cook books. ( I will have to take a count) I agree with every "hoarder" in this post as for reasons to keep them. I remember when the only book I had in 1967 was Betty Crocker. "Betty" is still my first point of reference with a stain on every page. Then the Betty Crocker Series I received free with box tops and labels. These same books are now selling for $30.00.
My grandchildren enjoy leafing thru them for the comments in the edges knowing that their Mom or Dad liked this recipe when they were their age. All of the different stages of my life are recorded in my Cook Book collection and then some. I'm a widowed empty nester now and back to work full time. Fast and Easy for me these days. I am looking forward to retirement and being able to have big Sunday dinners for my family once again. I really miss trying new recipes. I have cut down on buying cookbooks as best I can. It has to be special to me. The "French Laundry" was my last big splurge but it is more of the coffee table variety. Thanks for listening.