Confessions of a Cookbook Hoarder

So here I am, starting this blog thing, feeling crabby and hungry as usual.  It's not that I don't know what to make for dinner... okay, so I don't.  It's just that it seems like so much work to wade through the WAY too many cookbooks I have to figure out just what that might be.  The kids are at least not pulling my leg yet, asking, "What's for dinner?"

I did count, you know.  The cookbooks, I mean.  I counted them with the help of the wonderfully compulsive website, eatyourbooks.com, which enables you to have a lovely virtual bookshelf of your cookbooks and recipes.  I'm up to 727.  Cookbooks.  Yes, cookbooks.  (And this does not include the ten or so latest arrivals from Amazon and the Good Cook Cookbook Club that I have not yet uploaded onto my virtual bookshelf.)

So, I confess, I am a cookbook hoarder.  Part of the hoard is my mother's, enabler as she is to my addiction, but I take full responsibility for the shelves laden with cookbooks. Want to see?  Here they are...

Oh and here are some other shelves.

And there are these cabinets.  I'm sure you can guess what is behind those doors.

Oh, and all of these lovely tomes don't keep me from taking books out of the library either.  Sometimes I like to peruse a book before committing to buying it.  So there are always a few of those library books knocking around, too.

Oops, I forgot this shelf in the kitchen. But hey, there are only a few on that one, right?  

(Do I need to take pictures of the boxes of food magazines in the...?  But no, I digress.  This is about the books, after all.)

So how does one go about using all these cookbooks?  How does one avoid going to the same tried-and-true recipes time and again?  How does one keep from picking up the same book rather than a new book?  And which book does one even pick up?  I face these questions daily.

This is why I have decided to start this blog and share my experiences.  Maybe you face the same dilemma.  Maybe this will inspire you to try to take a stab at my method.  Maybe you'll just have a laugh.  This isn't really a recipe blog. This is a cookbook and cooking experience blog.  If you are searching for a particular recipe for a specific dish you just HAVE to make, this probably isn't the place you are going to find it.  If I find a gem, I will share it, of course.  If I find a dud, I will share that, too.  Get ready for random, because that's how I'm going about it.  Intrigued?  Get ready for my next post.  An explanation of the rules of The Cookbook Crapshoot...