Jean wrote on Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:51:54 -0500:

> cshenk wrote:
>> "Jean B." wrote
>>> James Silverton wrote:
>>
>>>> You have to be a little cautious with used books since
>>>> nothing less than "good" condition is worth bothering about
>>>> for cookbooks. "New" or "unused" can be worth the higher
>>>> prices.
>>>>
>>> I disagree. As they get older, and scarcer, one has to be
>>> more flexible about the condition.
>>
>> Yes, same here. I have many cookbooks from Amazon's section.
>> My favorite breadmaker book came from there. It's full of
>> handy hand-written tips from a previous owner and has my own added to
>> them ;-)
> I REALLY like cookbooks with annotated recipes!!!! Some
> consider that to be a negative thing, but I just love both the
> tips and the knowledge that someone else has used the book.

It's a valid opinion but I don't collect many cookbooks and I'd just as
soon not have ones that look well-used. The only used book I have bought
from Amazon recently was an essentially unused copy of "The People's
Republic of China Cookbook" by Noboku Sakamotu. It is out of print and
my daughter swiped my copy*. It cost a very little more than a new copy.
My wife usually copied much used recipes by hand or xeroxed them so my
collection is in pretty good shape.

My own practice, if I like a recipe, is to do the same except that I
copy to a computer and run the results thro a character recognition
program. I can then print a fresh copy when needed and quickly modify
the stored recipe. It is true that most new recipes that I try come from
the 'Net so adding them to the working folder is easy.

*I like to remind my daughter of the limerick:

There once was man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
His daughter, called Nan, ran off with a man
And, as for the bucket,
Nantucket.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not