I love both erikanh's and Eliz's solutions. Our kitchen is small (not eat in), and we didn't want to store the cookbooks too close to the cooker (grease, etc.). Since we have a decent collection of cookbooks, this posed a problem. We happen to have a little room adjacent to the kitchen and next to the fridge/washer & dryer setup, which we will use as an office(for now). This is a small, awkward room is about 6'x12' with a low, slanted ceiling that was an addition a previous owner had done. We took this room on when we remodeled the kitchen. There was no where to expand it, so to make the most of every inch, we had some bookcases built to recess into the walls on either side of a small table that was centered under a skylight(in fact, we recessed storage wherever we could. The narrow shelves for DVDs and CDs, and the deeper shelves for books). This narrow room will store the cookbooks on one set of bookcases, and files on the other. Later, if the office moves, this room can easily change personality to be an "eat-in pantry".

I just got a program called "Living Cookbook 2011" from my dd for Christmas. I was able to download a free copy from their website and use it for free for 30 days before she even spent the money. After a week, I was sold. It has a few built-in recipes, but I bought it for the build-your-own-cookbook feature. Then you can divide it into your own chapters. I've input a few pies and soups. I took pictures of my piecrusts, apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies from Thanksgiving dinner and was able to put them in the cookbook. There is also room for additional pictures and I have pictures of my nieces helping me roll out the pie crusts. My kids call me for recipes and my old favorites are in the recipe box, loose papers, my Betty Crocker & Better Homes & Gardens, Women's Day Encyclopedia of Cooking and a dozen other church cookbooks, microwave cookbooks. If I wasn't around, they were lost. So I've put it on my laptop and will be able to take it with me on vacation (Yes, we like to cook on vacation.) and eventually be able to print out copies of it. It also automatically calculates the nutritional values of the recipes once you put in the serving number. It has a lot of bells and whistles like meal planning and making a grocery list, but it doesn't have apps for you to go to the grocery store with. You can search by ingredient. But of course, my ultimate goal is to print copies of it out.

My adorable and inspiring Great Pumpkin Cookbook from Ruth Arrived yesterday with the mail forwarded from AZ. It's a winner even if it took the scenic route and arrived after the contest ended.. I love Pumpkin in almost any fashion (NO Pumpkin Spice Lattes for me) and have a good supply of nice winter squash. Look forward to trying several of these recipes.Tammy also sent laminated cards with substitutions and measures. Very useful and handy thanks Tammy. Again sorry about all the confusion over addresses and deliveries but All's well that ends well. I am redoing and expanding your book a bit should get it done and mailed by the end of the week

My mom had The Settlement Cookbook, AKA, The Way to a Man's Heart. Her's was the 1950 version and I think every Jewish bride, if they lived anywhere near Milwaukee, received it as a wedding gift. I loved using it, and when I found a 1928 version at a tag sale, I bought it for my own. Besides the great recipes, there were tips about housekeeping. In the back are ads from companies that helped to sponsor the book. Mine has an ad for a stove, the latest thing, that uses gas -- so you don't have to stoke it with coal or wood.