More cookbooks go digital, but popularity of paper persists

[Lin2412]

I find this article interesting because I've recently purchased 3 digital cookbooks, (mostly for practicality) but I have to admit that the good old printed cookbooks would be a timeless presence in the kitchen

Physical books offer a tactile and sensual experience, says cookbook editor Rux Martin, who runs her own imprint at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. In fact, Martin says, the print-digital divide has “amped up the artistic quotient” for cookbooks, inspiring publishers to add more color, design and other flourishes that make the print editions even more lush.

“This is now practically the only frontier where books are still books,” she says. “Who would choose functionality over beauty? Digital is strictly functional.”

[rxmom03]

Cookbooks and reference books are two things that I think I will always want in paper form. I do use an app (Pepperplate) to store recipes from the internet on my iPad, but I do love my cookbooks!

Mary

[pidgeon92]

I have a number of cookbooks, both paper and ebook. I find that I almost always eschew them both. I prefer getting recipes from various internet sites.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by rxmom03

Cookbooks and reference books are two things that I think I will always want in paper form.

Same here. It's annoying when the screen goes off during recipe preparation.

[murg]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

Same here. It's annoying when the screen goes off during recipe preparation.

Or you drop the eReader into the soup...

[NickyWithNook]

I love paper cookbooks, but they take up too much space, so I'm only getting ebook cookbooks now.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by murg

Or you drop the eReader into the soup...

That's why I have it in a reclosable plastic bag.

[Lin2412]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

That's why I have it in a reclosable plastic bag.

lol! Better be prepared than sorry. Hahaha. When I was a kid, during kitchen hours, my mother used to reprimand me for smudging chocolate in our cookbook. When I get to have kids, I wonder if I would be the kind of mother to reprimand my kids for smudging chocolate in the tablet. Hahaha.

[disconnected]

Cookbooks are one case (like knitting books and the like) where I think the publishers would do well to offer a combination deal -- buy the print version and get the digital version for a small additional charge. It's handy to have access when you're not at home -- in the grocery store for example.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by disconnected

Cookbooks are one case (like knitting books and the like) where I think the publishers would do well to offer a combination deal -- buy the print version and get the digital version for a small additional charge. It's handy to have access when you're not at home -- in the grocery store for example.

Agreed. And you could sit down and peruse the lovely pages and art in your recliner chair, then call up the recipe on your smart fridge (or whatever other connected device we have in the future) while cooking.

[rixte]

Heh, I find it kind of funny that a book editor seems to imply that beauty is found only in the visual, not in words themselves

But cookbooks ARE pretty much the only books I still buy in paper - although ideally I like to have both a paper and an ebook version and, in the best of all possible worlds, an app version! Although my favorite cookbooks are the the opposite of the kinds she's talking about - I usually get annoyed by coffee table cookbooks. More recipes, less images!

[Rich_D]

I've started buying all my cookbooks in ebook and purchased a used Nook HD solely for the kitchen. Between the cookbooks, e-magazines and internet recipes, it gets some use. Like another reader posted, a ziplock bag solves the problem of splashes and spills.

[Catlady]

Am I the only one who likes to mark up paper pages of cookbooks with penciled notes and comments and such? Even when I have a recipe in digital form, I print out a paper copy so I can write on it; then I save the copy in a folder for next time.

[treadlightly]

I'd love to see cookbooks and other instructional books fully use multimedia functions possible in an ebook. It would be cool to tap an ingredient to see a photo of it (i.e. arugula vs spinach), or tap a technique to see a short video of how to do it (i.e. how to knead a ball of dough). These types of books would be more suited to colour tablets of course.

[Hampshire Nanny]

"Digital is strictly functional."

Really? I have some *lovely* digital cookbooks. And digital opens the doors to multi-media.

Originally Posted by disconnected

Cookbooks are one case (like knitting books and the like) where I think the publishers would do well to offer a combination deal -- buy the print version and get the digital version for a small additional charge. It's handy to have access when you're not at home -- in the grocery store for example.

Indeed. Knitting & crochet books in paper allow you to mark/strike out/highlight the rows as you complete them and thus keep your place. It might be possible to do this with a digital book, but I think not as conveniently. Portability of the digital version is a really good idea.

When I use recipes from the Internet, I might take the tablet into the kitchen and view the web page while cooking. It's more likely, however, that I save a copy to my PC's hard drive (typically by printing the web page to PDF) so I can find it later, even if the web site goes offline. (Learned my lesson there!) Then when cooking the recipe, I'm likely to print a paper copy rather than transferring the recipe to my tablet to take it into the kitchen. I also save some recipes to Pinterest to help me find it again, but I like having the local copy safely on my PC.

Originally Posted by treadlightly

I'd love to see cookbooks and other instructional books fully use multimedia functions possible in an ebook. It would be cool to tap an ingredient to see a photo of it (i.e. arugula vs spinach), or tap a technique to see a short video of how to do it (i.e. how to knead a ball of dough). These types of books would be more suited to colour tablets of course.

Yeah that. I suppose that the media could be links to online content like YouTube as well as packaged as part of the cookbook itself.