Physical media in a digital age

We have reported before about how cookbooks continue to do well while much of the publishing market struggles with sluggish and even falling sales. The usual arguments for the success of this genre are that people prefer the tactile feel of books, it is easier to cook or bake from a printed page than from a screen, and that cookbooks are more aesthetically pleasing than online media. These are all true, but another important way that cookbooks provide value over online tools – one that is often overlooked – is that they are permanent.

Major food websites have closed down on short notice, sometimes without providing users with a method to download the recipes that they have come to rely upon. Links get broken. Streaming services quietly pull programs and artists from their lineup with no warning. These problems simply do not exist with physical media. People have started buying DVDs, CDs and vinyl records again because they worry (rightly) that movies and albums will not be available online in perpetuity, not to mention the fact that the quality of music is usually much better on physical media.

I recently discovered that when our microwave is in use, it interferes with our wi-fi (we are working to mitigate this, but it is far down on the to-do list). This is frustrating if I am, for instance, defrosting something that takes several minutes and meanwhile I cannot access the recipe website I was using. I don’t have to worry about my internet service being interrupted when I am cooking from a book. I don’t even have to worry about power outages because I have a gas cooktop and a flashlight. A cookbook doesn’t care if the electricity is on.

It’s true that there are downsides to physical media. Fires and floods can damage or destroy a collection gathered over a lifetime. There are limits on how much room is available for cookbooks (or can be allocated to cookbooks without spousal revolt). However, I’m still betting that it is more likely for a website to disappear than for my house to burn down, so I will continue to buy books even though I use recipe websites (and of course use EYB to find the recipes, no matter where they are stored). I am also taking the precaution of downloading favorite recipes that are not available in a printed form (whether a print to PDF or even a screenshot), just in case.

All this to say: cookbooks will – and should – continue to be prized because of the many advantages they have over online resources. When you find a cookbook author that clicks with your palate and cooking style, it is wonderful to have a collection of those recipes readily at hand in one of their books. It’s also a wonderful way to recognize and support such authors. Long live the cookbook!