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I am trying to decide if I should become a Premium member but so many of my books aren't indexed and the older ones probably never will be unless I do it myself! Give me some good reasons to sign up .......

I'll let members weigh in on specifics as to why they are Premium members but you might want to also check out our Member Benefits chart.

The main reason I became a premium member is that I couldn't see being limited to 5 cookbooks indexed! Even if all my cookbooks aren't indexed, at least most of them are. And with a premium membership I can request indexing. If enough members request indexing for a book it will be indexed, and I have been pleased when some of my older books have been.

There is also the ability to index yourself if you wish.

For me it was a no brainer.  I've always wanted to have something like this for a long time so that I can use my books more efficiently.  The amount per year is very reasonable to me compared to other sites I'm paying and I'm very glad there are dedicated people manning this site.  Even if less than 50% of my books are indexed, that's still 50% of books I can use better. 

oh BTW, I've indexed two books so far and I figure that's two books more I can use.  I'm struggling with indexing Book of Tofu because it has huge amount of recipes and hard to read, but once my busy times this summer is over I plan on finishing it off. 

Thanks, some great reasons that I hadn't even thought of and yes, I have signed up!

You are going to get good use of your cookbooks for sure. The annual fee is less than the price of most new cookbook, but EYB enables you to make good use of what you already have. Before EYB, I rarely used my cookbooks because I did not remember what's in them. Even though less than 50% of my books are indexed, I'm cooking from my books all the time now. I also liked the notes feature that allow you to document your experience with each recipe; it also led me to some great recipes based on other people's notes. Bookmarklets are also very useful tool for organizing your books and your recipes.

Using the ratings for recipes you already own gives you some predictability when you try a new recipe.  Reviewing your old recipes in comparison to the ones in newer books gives you some ideas of which cookbooks you might keep and which might have only a couple of recipes you really want to keep. Finally, you can take newer cookbooks out of the library to try ones that have a lot of buzz, and add them to your library while you are using them.

I have been a premium member for a couple years now, and I find it really valuable.  I don't have the biggest cookbook library (around 100 books), but it helps me to find recipes - and importantly - more effectively use the food that is languishing in my refrigerator.  I figure I save the $25/year in food that is eaten (because of finding recipes here) rather than becoming compost or chicken fod.

OTOH, I find the recipe reviews/notes on this site to be useful, but not particularly detailed, and still prefer the reviews that are posted on cookbooker.com (which is 100% free, but mostly the ingredients are not indexed).  I am tryng to post my reviews/notes on both sites, but the cookbooker site seems more interactive with comments/questions about recipes - which I really love. 

@Nemin: Thanks so much for a great idea!  I have had for several years a 'cuisines' wishlist of cookbooks in my bookmarks, and you gave me the idea to investigate them a bit more by checking out online recipes from those books.  Went to 'My Bookshelf/Recipes', then chose my cuisines wishlist from 'Look in Books' dropdown, and finally checked Online Recipes.

I sorted by Author, and scrolled through the results. Ended up adding a bunch of new recipes to existing recipe bookmarks, and also got a much better sense of which of the books on the wishlist are of real cooking interest.  Making one of the selected recipes for dinner tonight, too!  Thanks again.

[edited 8/6 for clarity]