Mary, many of the very modern cook(ery) books, as we call them over here, seem to be of the coffee table variety. Beautifully printed, lovely photographs often 'shot' in strange non-food connected locations . . . rustic seems to be very popular at the moment. Mist over a distant bucolic vista, a rug laid on a bale of straw and a floaty-clad maiden balancing a plate of something organic in one hand an a glass of an eye-wateringly pricey vino in the other.
All fascinating to read about but, I fear, probably not too practical in everyday life.
Isn't it interesting that apart from the new breed of 'celebrity chefs', people like Pamela Harlech bother to produce cookery books. I realise they have presided over lavish dinner parties but wonder if any of them have ever rolled their sleeves up and actually cooked anything themselves?

RECIPES FROM A FRENCH HERB GARDEN by Geraldene Hold is a great example.

A number of food related books in Australia are the result of winning a competition like "Masterchef". The subject of the books vary according to the tastes of the winner.
I find these very helpful for Christmas gifts.
I used to borrow cookery books when I worked in a library and usually returned them unread. The covers were so inspiring but the sad truth is that I am more of a food preparer than a cook. Ironically my daughter and her two children have all worked in the catering trade. Perhaps the result of eating the rather plain dinners I served up? When your husband is happy with steak and potatoes or bubble and squeak, it is hard to feel like being creative!

Vee, the book I have by Pamela Harlech is certainly not a "coffee table" tome. It is filled with useful tidbits on how to remove stains, how to banish insects, how to truss a turkey, plus recipes for rabbit, venison, goose, and so much more. I have the impression that Harlech was very much a "hands on" cook in her day.

Before I moved here and before I was forced to downsize, I had to get rid a lot of my older cookbooks, some from the 1800s and early 1900's. These were fascinating for me to read, with such different terms for what we use today, and old fashioned recipes for items such as "syllabub" (from colonial days).

Having just started to learn to cook about four years ago, I find myself totally addicted to cookbooks, a new book addiction for me. In the past month I have purchased so many cookbooks I would be embarrassed to say but most of my reading now involves cookbooks or books about becoming or being a chef or foodie books of some type.

To mention one in particular, My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz has wonderful stories and comments to go along with the recipes. This book has led me to his other cookbooks and to his memoir, The Sweet Life in Paris, which I loved. He also has a blog that is updated frequently. So, this one book has created numerous hours of enjoyable reading for me, not to mention some hours of cooking as well.

We bought the cookbook Manresa, named for the famous restaurant, without the slightest intention of ever cooking any of the difficult but stunning recipes. It is indeed a thing of beauty.

And while it is not a recipe book, the food book called The United States of Arugula revolutionized the way I think about food and cooking. Such an eye opener to a world all around me, but up until then invisible.

I like to read cookbooks in bed at night. It stops me from rushing into the kitchen to cook something from them. (I do keep some sticky notes on my bedside table to mark interesting recipes).

I prefer books that aren't just recipe collections, but actually teach me something about food, cooking and cuisine.

I have around 150 cookbooks and food books and I cook from about four of them on a regular basis. The rest are for reading and reference. I have shifted my cookbook collecting from recipe collections to books about national and regional cuisines that include recipes, although the occasional recipe collection still does find its way onto my bookshelves. The final aim is to have books about all the major world cuisines (more or less accomplished) and some of the more interesting less known cuisines. Ideally, I would also like to own a book about the food of every country I have visited.

The last cookbook I finished was Patricia Wells at Home in Provence, in which she discusses French cooking, local ingredients and her inspirations for the recipes.

I have been reading Antonio Carluccio's Italia on and off for the last year or so and learning about Italian regional cuisine.

Netla, your taste in cookbooks sounds like my own. I've never counted, but I must have close to 100 cookbooks, some of which I use as reference books. My collection includes books on cuisine from France, Greece, Germany, Italy, the Middle East, New England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England,Scandinavia, and more. I also have a few books on wines and cheeses.

I love to cook, as a sort of adventure. I adore reading novels which have descriptions of meals in them, e.g. the work of M.F.K. Fisher.

In the course of several moves, I have had to discard many of my books and have few of the heavy cookery books left. I still have a couple of Delia Smith's which I bought when I lived in the UK but most of mine are Australian. One is an old one that my husband bought for me in 1964 and a Country Woman's Association book given to me by my MiL after my marriage to introduce me to the Australian kitchen.
It is interesting to see how Australian cuisine has progressed. Originally meals generally followed the British style but now with the mingling of many cultures and the use of local produce have evolved into something quite different.
Has anyone bought any Australian books on food?

Annpan, I don't believe I've ever seen an Australian cookbook. Please tell me what the food is like! I think of steaks, shrimps, and barbecue, but I suspect there is a lot more to it than that.

Rosefolly

Ann, all the books by Delia Smith have become my DH's reading of choice. And certainly, if you follow her advice it is impossible to go wrong. You may remember she recommended cranberries (which have to be imported from the US) they were cleared off the shelves in minutes. When she suggested using a particular omelet pan she saved the factory where they were manufactured from going broke.
I don't think I have come across an Australian cookery book and only remember ex-pats saying how roast turkey etc was eaten in boiling heat on Christmas Day . . . and steak for breakfast! Good quality steak is still a luxury item over here. ;-)

Rosefolly, there is a lot of Asian cuisine in Australia now.
Julie Goodwin, the first Masterchef Australia winner has written a few books and there are so many others written by TV chefs and restaurant owning chefs that I cannot name them all!
Seafood is very popular and there is a difference in the term "barbeque" as used in the US and here where it is a piece of equipment that provides the barbequed food. From what I have read in novels US barbeque is a meal, is that right? Here we would be specific as in "barbequed chicken/steak/sausages etc."

Vee, hot meals at Christmas were abandoned around the 1970s from memory. Now it is common to have a buffet with cold meat like roasts, ham and poultry, seafoods and salads on the table with Pavlova and ice cream as well as the traditional warmed pudding and mince pies. Even non-traditional Christmas puds are making an appearance, flavoured with chocolate or with a hidden preserved orange.
With such a mixed population, other cultures have their own traditions with exotic delicacies in the shops for all to sample and include in our feasts.

The term "barbeque" is quite a special term in the Southern region of the US. There are various sorts of barbeque sauces for meats, according to regional recipes. Some are hot and spicey; others are mild. Texas barbeque sauce is quite distinct from Tennessee barbecue sauce, for example.

Americans are "grilling" more and more. Not just meats, but now fruits and vegetables, too.

Vee, I mentioned about the phasing out of the hot Christmas dinner to a friend in New South Wales and she said that she still does a roast as her family likes one. It would seem that there are still pockets of resistance to change!
Of course, if the day is quite cool, a hot meal makes sense.
I took my family out to lunch today (son's 50th birthday) and the restaurant had the Christmas menu buffet. It had just about everything you could want to eat and included roasts, Christmas pudding with custard and bite sized mince pies, no doubt for those people who wouldn't feel it was a proper Christmas Dinner without those items.

Speaking of reading cookbooks for pleasure, two young academics from the Univeristy of Pennsylvania have started a blog on the translation of old hand-written cookbooks into modern, workable recipes. The link below takes you to an article about them. Within the article is a link to their blog.

Rosefolly

Here is a link that might be useful: Translating old recipes

My favorite "old recipe" instruction is from my Chocolate Chess Pie recipe that calls for half an eggshell of milk.

Rosefolly, interesting article on old cookery recipes. I notice one of the writers of the blog complains that cooking temps. are not given, but of course in a time when most of it was guess-work (rather like measuring the baby's bathwater temp by using your elbow) it must have been very hit-and-miss.
I suppose as most of our ancestors were very poor all food had to be boiled in a pot over a fire. Roasting or baking was only available to the wealthy until the invention of the kitchen range. All meals must have been rather dull, no wonder peasants looked forward to 'feast-days' when the local lord would be expected to provide a groaning table of goodies.

I love reading cookbooks for pleasure, too. There are at least a couple of categories -- "ethnic" cookbooks where the author discusses the history and culture behind the food they cook, sometimes relating this into their personal family (or ancestral) histories, and in the case of very broad categories such as Chinese or Indian, delineating what is Goan, Punjabi (for the Indian), etc influences.

The second category for me is reading turn of the (last) century cookbooks -- or older ones -- some of which you can find for free on Amazon. It is fascinating to see how recipes were constructed, foods we ate once we seldom see today, what spices were used, and amazingly how little, and cooking methods.

Yes, I enjoy reading the "ethnic" cookbooks as well.

Vee, would they not have roasted meats on a spit in the larger fireplaces they had them? I seem to recall seeing this done in Colonial Williamburg. (rabbit, game, etc.). Also, I've seen old houses in America that had a type of an oven adjacent to the fireplace that was used to bake a form of bread. I think this was done in France, as well in past centuries.

Mary re cooking with a 'spit' etc. I think in far-off days only the 'middling' (and above) sort of people would have had those wide hearths and a tall chimney. Maybe because the mud, wattle and daub one-roomed hovels of the lowly peasant/serf types would have decayed quite quickly we forget that is how 95%(?) of our ancestors lived. Many country dwellers kept a pig but I think most of that was salted down and boiled and the innards were either boiled or fried, probably on the end of a toasting fork.