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When I buy / receive a new cookbook, I'm pretty predictable.  Assuming it's a broad range book (ie not a baking or other specialty subject book), I gravitate 1st to soups and long slow 1 pot braises.  Salads, veggie sides, big roasts/ grilled meats and desserts of all kinds can wait.  And yes, I do eventually tend to wander through all chapters of the book but as long I find some winners in my usual spots.....the book has earned its place on my somewhat limited shelf space. 

Are you as predictable as I am?  How so?  Or are you the random type who cruises through all the sections at will? 

I lean towards cooksbooks with a section describing ingredients. If there are ingredients I do not know, I'll actually check the index to see those recipes first. Next I head to the starter/small plates section as those are often quick to make and use ingredients at hand; that lets me get a sense of the cookbook. Soups and noodles/dumplings come next - followed by fish, salad, veggies ... Meats and desserts are very much the last to get attention unless they figured into my purchasing of the book. Bread fall into a random pattern - I've either got a new flour to try or it feels like a bread-making day ... well, two days - one to drool over bread recipes and one or two to actually make it.

With a new cookbook, I first read it cover-to-cover. I will mark interesting recipes with post-it note flags (and with the "I want to cook this" EYB bookmark). Sometimes I am motivated by the photo. Or an interesting method or flavor combination. Or a new recipe for a favorite ingredient; or a new ingredient that looks appealing.

There's an "I want to cook this" bookmark? I want to know more about it.

When you find a recipe you would like to cook (from my bookshelf/recipes), click on the bookmark with a plus sign. On the list of recipes page, it is on the bottom right of the recipe (the same line as the stars & the notes field). Then click on the "I want to cook this" box. This is also where you find the "I have cooked this" box, or any personal bookmarks you have made for recipes. (A recipe must be on your bookshelf before you can add a bookmark for it.)

If you are on the page for an individual recipe (where you see the recipe title & the book title at the top of the page, and then the list of ingredients), then look for "My bookmarks" on the right side of the page, under the stars for EYB member ratings. Click on the plus sign next to "My bookmarks". 

Bookmarking a recipe with "I want to cook this" will give it a "red hat" next to the recipe. Bookmarking a recipe with "I have cooked this" will have have a "green hat"; this option also lets you specify a month & year that you've made the recipe, and has space for your notes. 

You can see all the recipes you have bookmarked by going to My bookshelf/My recipes, and then look on the right columm for dropdown menu My bookmarks/Show only recipes. Choose the appropriate bookmark. You can also limit a recipe search to things you have bookmarked (i.e., chicken recipes with the "I want to cook this" bookmark). 

Hope this helps!

OK, I found the directions and I made my first "I want to cook this" bookmark.

Now I have to learn to find it again >:-(

OK I just discovered how. I'm OK.

I'm not as methodical as some of you are. When I get a new print cookbook, I flip through it, and when I see a recipe that catches my fancy I bookmark it. When I get a new ebook I don't do even that - I just put the ebook on my virtual shelf.

Now that I know how to set an EYB bookmark I may add it to my routine.

That's great to hear; Bookmarks are a powerful feature.  When I get a new cookbook, I go through it for recipes of most interest, and make an EYB Bookmark for them named 'c.CookbookTitle'.  I do the same thing for some cookbooks that have been here but remain unused.

Those lists are where I look when I'm meal planning: I have a tendency to stick to my existing repertoire, but if I pick a day in the next week or two to try something new, those lists make it easy to review candidate recipes.