The enduring appeal of cookbooks
February 3, 2023 by DarcieThis will come as no surprise to our Members, but the popularity of cookbooks shows no signs of slowing down. It’s one bright spot in the struggling print publishing industry, with consistent sales of several million volumes annually (about 20 million cookbooks are sold in the US each year). Why do cookbooks buck the trend to digital? Because they are both practical and beautiful: pragmatic art.
During the pandemic, people turned to books that focused on basics as many struggled to adapt to much more at-home meal prep than they were accustomed to doing. Now that most people are back to more regular schedules, sales have shifted to easy, quick, and one-pot types of recipes. Currently Ina Garten’s Go-To Dinners and Jamie Oliver’s One: Simple One-Pan Wonders sit atop the New York Times bestsellers list.
While plenty of people use the internet to find recipes, it can be hard to sift through the noise to find the best ones (cough they should be using EYB cough). Browsing a physical volume can make things easier, says Paula Forbes of Stained Page News. “Flipping through a cookbook can be less overwhelming than scrolling endlessly on your phone, looking for inspiration,” she notes. Having EYB is the best of both worlds – the best recipes on the internet are nestled next to the ones in your own cookbooks.
I did have to chuckle when reading the article linked above, as they described Baltimore Banner columnist Leslie Gray Streeter as a “hoarder” since she had “dozens” of cookbooks. If dozens makes you a hoarder, I’m not sure how to describe the several hundred books in my collection, or the collections of our Members that often run into the thousands.
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