Practice cookbook voyeurism

When you are at the grocery store, do you ever peek into the cart next to yours to see what others are purchasing? Have you gone to a realtor’s open house in your neighborhood just to have a look inside? Then you probably wonder what other EYB members’ cookbook collections look like. Lucky for you we’ve made it easy for you to browse thousands of other members’ Bookshelves and compare them with your own. On every Book detail page (click on the book title to access), there is a link labeled Bookshelves. Every member who owns that book is listed. Click on a username and you can see that member’s Profile page and a list of the books they own. You can see all of their books, just the ones you have in common, or only the books that are indexed. If you want to see the book covers and more detail, use the Collapse/Expand toggle. (You can also see who has a cookbook on his or her Bookshelf in the Books listing of the Library. You’ll see an icon of two silhouettes for each book that you can click to view who has the book.)

It’s only fair for you to share your cookbook collection, too. Of course EYB members can view your Bookshelf, but if you have a blog or website, you can share your collection with an even broader audience. Just install the EYB Widget (pictured at left) on your site. It will provide a direct link to your EYB Bookshelf. 

Along with allowing you to view another member’s Bookshelf, the member Profile page contains additional information about that member, including a short bio and a link to their blog or website, if they have one. Your profile is where you can tell other EYB members about yourself – it’s interesting when reading Notes to learn more about the writer.  A Note that says “the family loved it” has more meaning if you know that “the family” are toddlers or teenage boys.

It’s easy to update your Profile. Just click on your username in the top right hand corner and select Profile. You will see what other members see when they click on your username. If you want to edit your Profile, just click on the Edit link.