Cookbooks: How do you treat them?

[Claire]

I'm very casual with my cookbooks. Where the spine is broken is where I can open the book without looking to a recipe I use often. I love seeing the page splattered with my efforts. I loan them very easily, and over the years have only lost one cookbook and one issue of Gourmet. The cookbook is still a puzzle -- my Korean cookbook that disappeared a year ago, and no one I now know would even dream of making a Korean meal. So where did that one migrate to?

[GB]

Originally Posted by Claire

I love seeing the page splattered with my efforts.

I am the same way. I love to see that!

[boufa06]

I am just the other way around. I keep my books pristine and will photostat a recipe to take to the kitchen with me rather than the cookbook itself.

[Katie E]

Originally Posted by boufa06

I am just the other way around. I keep my books pristine and will photostat a recipe to take to the kitchen with me rather than the cookbook itself.

Same here. I treat my cookbooks as I would like to be treated...with gentleness and kindness. Some of them are like old friends and some have been given to me by old friends, some of whom are no longer alive. I love my cookbooks.

[licia]

I treat mine well also, but from the looks of some of my old ones, that wasn't always the case. My earlier volumes have many stains from whatever I was cooking (the chocolate recipes are splattered more).

[cookmex]

My prize cookbook is a cookie recipe book published in 1890. It was in pristine condition when I bought it a few years ago and I will keep it that way. The newer ones, I use and if I spill a little something on them, I'll give them a wipe and do not worry about it too much.

I have to admit that some of my cookbooks do have broken spines and lots of splotches. Those are the ones that get used the most.

I have a bunch of treasured loose recipes that were my grandmothers. They are tattered and torn and spotted and all the more valuable for it.

[Loprraine]

I always start out with very good intentions, and most are in great shape. But, I have a few that I use all the time, and they are quite dog eared, and splattered upon. As for loaning them out, some I will, but only to certain people. Others don't leave the house.

[Constance]

My most-used cookbooks are a bit tattered and stained...the Fannie Farmer, and my first Joy of Cooking in particular. In fact, the hard-back cover actually came off my Joy of Cooking. I re-attached it, but I'd had a bit of the sippy when I did it, and the cover is now upside down.

[Corinne]

I am totally anal about all of my books. When I finish reading a paperback book, it still looks brand new. Anyone that knows me at all, knows that I will cringe when someone breaks a book spine in front of me. I think my friends kinda get a kick out of doing it & watching for my reaction! And I'm the same way about my cookbooks. Books are pretty precious to me. Just a quirk of mine. Can you say O-C-D?!?!
On the other hand, my Bibles are well used & I've written notes (in ink) on a lot of the pages. Took me awhile to be able to bring myself to do that!

Corinne

[suzyQ3]

Originally Posted by licia

I treat mine well also, but from the looks of some of my old ones, that wasn't always the case. My earlier volumes have many stains from whatever I was cooking (the chocolate recipes are splattered more).

Same here. It wasn't until we started getting serious about collecting that we began to treat ours more carefully. We buy mostly older used cookbooks -- on eBay and some booksites -- and we don't buy those that are not in very good to excellent condition. So that made me rethink how I treat the ones I already have.

Whenever possible, btw, I buy books with dust jackets because I like them and because they make the book more collectible. Some professional sellers protect the dj with a mylar cover (Brodart is the best). We started buying those for our previous books and got a bit carried away. It took a while, but we have "covered" every dust jacketed book in our collection. They perk up that less-than-perfect dust jacket, in addition, of course, to protecting it.