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First, I'd like to say I thought I was the only one who had more than a couple dozen physical cookbooks. This forum makes me feel so much better about my collection of 95. =) 

In case anyone is still following this thread and cares, here's how I organize my physical collection.

• Books generally focused on cooking technique, but perhaps with some recipes as well


• Cookbooks focused on quick meals


• Cookbooks focused on particular qualities or diets (e.g., paleo, heart healthy), not including vegetarian


• Cookbooks by region (multi-region first, and then sorted west to east)


• General/compendiums


• Vegetarian


• Grilling and smoking


• Restaurant and fine dining (more elaborate recipes)


• Sauces


• Slow cooker/Instant Pot


• Miscellaneous (e.g., cheese making)

By the way, I'm still very new here, so i don't know the protocols, but I'd love to see photos of people's collections. Here's a link to most of mine.

May be boring, but the only way I can find anything is to have them organized alphabetically by author's name.  Love the idea of rainbows and region and such but then i can't find anything when i want it!

I just did a switcheroo with mine-- I have two shelves in the dining room for my books, and I separated out the ones with the most weeknight-friendly meals and put them on the smaller shelf as a "quick, make dinner" section.  The others are right below in a "generally a bit more work" group-- along with single-subject books that don't really lend themselves to throwing together an evening meal.  

I've got my cookbooks consolidated to one set of metro shelving containing 5 shelves.  It's pretty precarious, but all 200 cookbooks have managed to find a place on these shelves.   I've got mine organized somewhat by cuisine/geography.   Top shelf is all Italian; second is all Asian & Indian divided up by region/cuisine: Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Cambodian, Burmese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian & Sri Lankan; third is all breads; fourth is all cookies, cakes and patisserie; and fifth is a combo of oversized books, general cooking/technique, and the rest of the regional cuisine cookbooks. 

Spent a lot of time in the local library as a kid (like, a LOT) and therefore order my cookbooks by Dewey Decimal. Don't laugh too hard. :)

This, essentially, works out as decimal breakdowns of the number '641', which is Technology/Home economics/Food and drink, and mainly groups books into 'General'; 'Author/Craft'; 'National & Regional Cuisine'; 'Specific Ingredients / Dietaries'; 'Specific Meals / Dishes'. If I'm in doubt, I check numbers on Library Thing.

It makes a lot of sense to my brain - which is the main thing for anyone, so I guess do whatever makes the most sense to you and your partner. (My partner does not get the DDC/MDS ordering, but also doesn't cook that much.) Either way, thank goodness for Eat Your Books as a giant index!

Originally Posted by: MaryMM

I arrange mine by color of bindings in a rainbow order with white, beige, grey and black at the end.  Looks nice but is totally illogical in terms of finding like next to like.  I take the jackets off the old ones so I have a few really boring bindings, mostly beige and gray.  I reduced my collection by 2/3rd in 2025. With a couple of exceptions  if i hadn't used them in the last year they went to the library for their yearly sale. The reduction allowed me to have room for some new ones and refreshed my cooking style.  I keep my baking books on separate shelves from the others.  Good thing I don't have 3500 cookbooks.  

Any regrets on the purge?  Only Keller's Ad Hoc at Home.  Went to make potate pave and no recipe. 

If you're still craving a potato pave recipe .. I made this one the other day .. haven't tried anything from the recipe other than the pave - simple & quite good. BTW I'm also a colour and height arranger! 

I organise by height & colour according to in which room the books are located - now sprawled across 3 rooms as the collection has grown. Once upon a time I was more organised, but finding the books has never been much of a problem as the brain seems to have stored which books are where pretty darn well! I would so like to have the room to have them all on display in the kitchen area....

My numerous books are loosely 'organized' with vegetarian, preserving, Mediterranean sections but also by favorite authors and visual appeal which are on my kitchen display shelves. I also know where most of them are by memory, despite the actual randomness but just in case, I have bookmarked most of them by 5 different locations.

We moved in December and so I did get to reorganize my cookbooks when I unpacked them.  At my daughter's suggestion I changed up what I had done in the past which was basically by author,  a baking section,  a holiday section.    Now I am trying the following:

• Baking shelves


• "tomes" shelf with the huge books Like Big Vegan Flavor,  the Silver Spoon - mainly because I wanted them all on the bottom of the bookshelf


• Equipment books - books for my bread machine, vitamix, pressure cooker, etc


• Soups, Salad and sandwich shelf


• Occasion books - holiday and entertaining menu type cookbooks


• A shelf of quick weeknight type dinners - like Quick Six Fix,  HBH books, etc


• A shelf of regulars - books I reach for over and over again


• A shelf of Indian/Korean/Asian


• A shelf of novelty - like literary cocktails, the Little House on the Prarie cookbook etc


• One stack on half of shelf that I had no idea how to categorize. 

Originally Posted by: MaryMM

I arrange mine by color of bindings in a rainbow order with white, beige, grey and black at the end. 

I came here to say this! Here's how mine's arranged:

Shelf 1: Pink, red, orange

Shelf 2: Yellow, green

Shelf 3: Blue, purple

Shelf 4: Black/dark neutrals

Shelf 5: White/light neutrals

I use my cookbooks so much that I pretty much remember the spine color of every book, so I don't find the need to alphabetize them. 

My cookbook shelf is displayed right in the middle of the kitchen/dining area, so it's a focal point. I wanted to prioritize aesthetics, I love the way it looks!

I just went on a cookbook buying binge in the last few months from Vivienne in Portland and I don't feel guilty now that I realize that my collection is rather puny in size.  I am trying to figure out how I want to keep my books after I renovate my kitchen which is still in the same sorry state it was when the first owners renovated it in the early 80s. I am debating whether to build out a bookshelf or have a work table (not island) built with shelves under it. I like the idea of keeping the books by color in the Roy G. Biv order.  I did that with my CDs years ago and it looked really cool. 

Hi to everybody,

I have an Excel spreadsheet, and I order them by number + letter of the shelf-location (1A-office, 2B-Office, 3C-Office, 312A-dining room, etc) and in the description I write the style of cooking (Mexican, Portuguese, techniques, etc)  I have an sticker with a letter in each shelf, as well as sticker in each book with the number and letter, When I want to know where I have an specific book, I can filter the spreadsheet by author, location, style of cooking, etc. 

I don´t know if I have made myself understood. For me it is a method that works in a heartbeat. I often consult EYB for a recipe and it gives me back the book in which it is and then I go to my XLS spreadsheet to find the book in question.

[quote=Marimar;51338]

Wow Marimar!! - that's super organised .. were/are you a librarian per chance!!

Hi Debkellie, no, not a librarian, but you almost guessed it!  I work as secretary.