Subliminal marketing and the “Every Day”

I’ve just been noticing that suddenly the words “Every Day” are appearing in the new cookbooks I see, well, every day.  This week it was Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s  River Cottage Every Day.  That’s “Every Day” the adverbial phrase, not “everyday” the adjective.  “Everyday” the adjective has overtones of the humdrum, I suppose, even though you do see it widely used on cookbook jackets.  But for me, “Every Day,” with the space, has a certain siren lure.

I found, upon investigating, that some of my absolute favorite cookbooks use the magic phrase “Every Day”.  Like Roy Finamore’s Tasty: Get Great Food on the Table Every Day.  Or Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day.  Every time I pick up Reinhart’s book, I say to myself, Why yes!  I could make artisanal bread every day, if I wanted to.  Every day, and any day!  But I don’t have to.

There are even “Every Day” books I’m inexplicably drawn to but rarely use, like Noodles Every Day, or Diana Henry’s Pure Simple Cooking: Effortless Meals Every Day.  Even if I never pull them off the shelf, they seem to promise that every day, any day, I could.

Is there a magic phrase that makes you buy or keep a cookbook?  You may not have even thought about it before…but chances are there is.

Susie