Organising books

Mr_Singleton

I normally feel the urge to better? organise my cookbooks every couple of months.

How do others organise there books?

Heres a shot of my most used cookbooks in todays new order. Have about 3 times more scattered around the place.....

Tiddlywinks

I've just got mine split into:

General - for the Delia / Nigella etc - which have a cross range of recipes

Baking - with the bread books at the beginning

Regional - Italian, Indian etc

I've had a real cull of my books recently and got rid of a lot of the 'coffee table' kind of volumes that I rarely used but took up masses of space. Now I'm left with the practical and realistic books rather than the 'aspirational' that just sat gathering dust.

Callie22

Mine are alphabetical, although every so often I feel (and fight!) the urge to arrange them by colour as it looks so pretty when you see it done online. Your picture has just reminded me that 'Tender' by Nigel Slater really irritates me as it's the only one of his books where the title runs in the opposite way to the others. The perfectionist in me can't stand that!

[Deleted User]

Golly aren't you all good I have not only lots of cook books but also lots of files with hand written recipes on there plus my Misers online cook book compiled over the past few years which I have shared with many people on here :):)

Still got the first one I ever bought when I got married in 1962 called cooking for two and it cost me 2s6d from Woolworths.
Bit battered and splattered in places (like its owner ) but I can remember being a young wife and learning what my brand new husband liked to eat, it will be 55 years old next month :):) wish I was :):)

JackieO

karcher

Callie22 wrote: »

Mine are alphabetical, although every so often I feel (and fight!) the urge to arrange them by colour as it looks so pretty when you see it done online. Your picture has just reminded me that 'Tender' by Nigel Slater really irritates me as it's the only one of his books where the title runs in the opposite way to the others. The perfectionist in me can't stand that!

Turn the book upside down

AliBee16

I culled a lot of my books as I had about twice that amount, by going through and tearing out the recipes I would actually use. The other books that are more useful/pretty I have arranged by Celebrity (Delia, Jamie, etc), regional (Italian, Indian, Moroccan etc), Vegetarian, Healthy eating, Cakes, Thrifty, Other

Tiddlywinks

AliBee16 wrote: »

I culled a lot of my books as I had about twice that amount, by going through and tearing out the recipes I would actually use. The other books that are more useful/pretty I have arranged by Celebrity (Delia, Jamie, etc), regional (Italian, Indian, Moroccan etc), Vegetarian, Healthy eating, Cakes, Thrifty, Other

:eek::eek::eek:

OMG - I'm having palpitations just thinking about tearing a page out of a book.

I'm off for a lie down.

monnagran

I am impressed Mr singleton.

I have even more books than that but not in nearly as pristine condition. I bet mine are more like JackieOs having seen sterling service for the best part of 60 years - plus some inherited from my mother which date from pre-war days.

I have shelves of battered, spattered, spineless books with the titles worn off by much fingering. Loose pages, bits of paper tucked into them either as bookmarks for favourite recipes or with handwritten scribbled recipes on them.

They are not a thing of beauty but they are my family history. They may not delight the eye but over the years they have delighted and nourished hundreds of thousands of stomachs.

So...........I make no apology for their fairly disgusting state.

karcher

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek:

OMG - I'm having palpitations just thinking about tearing a page out of a book.

I'm off for a lie down.

Agreed :eek::eek:

jackyann

I too love my cookbook shelves - my mother's book of recipes, including the wedding cake made for her wedding in 1948, and 2 of her favourite books - I often turn to the Dairy Book of British Food.
The very first cookbook I bought for myself, to remind me of teenage trips to France: Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking - 47 years old and I checked something in it just yesterday.
Lots were gifts and make me smile.
Ones that surprise me - no great fan of Nigella in her more recent guises, I often look up basics in How To Eat (1999). My children gave me Rick Stein's French Odyssey, saying that I would just enjoy the pictures and reading it generally 'cos you know all the recipes' - actually he writes so clearly and sensibly I find that I use it frequently.
A 40 year old Rose Elliott book is my basis for vegetarian cookery.
And I have a shelf on food history, one of my interests, and a Larousse (also a gift) for reference on the bottom shelf.

Linda32

It's gardening books for me that I arrange. I have the books on a table at the side of my chair that detail by month. So I read these during the current month.

Then the others are arranged by a plantsman or woman. Then books about a particular plant. Then general gardening books. I try not to have too many of these as they are the same thing really.