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I've belonged to Eat Your Books for some time, but never really done much with it.  I'd love some pointers on how I can better use my membership and this page.

I use EYB constantly to find recipes in my cookbooks and magazines.  I also use it to find special recipes when I can't remember where I got them.  I use it to quickly search my cookbooks and magazines and the blogs for new recipes for when I have an ingredient or two that I want to do something different with.  For example, when I picked up some nice quince at the farmer's market last fall, rather than sitting down and pulling out cookbook after cookbook looking for a recipe I just went into EYB and typed in "quince" and up popped all the recipes I had.  The part I really like is the listing of the main ingredients in the recipes so that if I end up with 10 recipes for venison stew I can quickly see which one I have everything I need already on hand and skip the others unless I want to make trip to the store.  But if you want to get wild with ingredients you can find a recipe that really amps up the flavor.

I have just started posting a bit in the forum.  One afternoon I had just browsed through my grandmother's old White House Cookbook from 1916 that she had received as a wedding present back in 1916 and it is strictly about cooking on a woodstove.  Later that day I went to EYB and noticed that someone was looking for cookbooks about cooking on a woodstove so I replied about the White House Cookbook.  It was fun and a great way to be part of a community of cooks all helping each other out.  Another time someone was looking for an old recipe from Bon Appetit.  Since I have kept all my old copies for 20 years and have the paper indexes I quickly searched for the recipe and was able to reply to the post that it was not in any of those issues and must be from an even older issue.

I love scrolling through the blogs and looking at what these cooks are doing.  When I find I really like most of the recipes from a blog I add that blog to my bookshelf.  I also put the EYB bookmarklet on my browser so that if I find a recipe I want to keep from another site I can add it to my bookshelf as well.

All in all EYB has been great fun, a big time-saver when it comes to finding recipes and has made me use my cookbooks more than ever before!

Kathy

Thanks for your quick response.  It's given me some good direction.  And I don't use my collection of cookbooks nearly enough.  Instead of searching through them, I end up finding a recipe online.  

Laurejean - the major and key use of the site is it's so easy to utilize and get the worth out of your cookbooks, at least it is for me. The search feature allowing me to "browse" through my books is invaluable.

The community is great and can often point you in the direction of a book or recipe you are curious enough to try and that's the beginning of the adventure.  Questions are raised, suggestions offered and interest displayed in a like-minded group of cookbook devotees.

Look around and enjoy yourself.

I hope you'll stay engaged with the site and have fun.

Thank you.  I've been spending my time today since I posted, familiarizing myself with the site.  And I've added the "Add to EYB Recipes" to my bookmarks bar.  I need to use it more to use it efficiently.  And of course, I love cookbook talk.  Hard to believe, but I don't have too many friends who share my love of cookbooks.

Interestingly - the number of real-life cookbook friends I have are about five, most of whom are now long-distance and seldom seen.

Another good reason to stay tuned to the site!

The ability to create your own lists of books and recipes by adding Bookmarks is one of EYB's most powerful features.

My most frequent use is, like many EYB users, searching through my recipes to find ways to use a particular ingredient or two.  Often I'll bookmark the recipes in the search results that appeal to me most so that I don't have to repeat it next time, so I have a lot of recipe bookmarks like i.ricotta, i.dill, i.sweet potato, etc.  [Because bookmarks display alphabetically, using a letter system for my recipe bookmarks keeps similar ones grouped together, so I'm free to create lots of them without making things chaotic.]

Another very helpful feature is finding out which of my books have recipes for a certain dish, e.g. Brunswick stew, so I can efficiently review the alternatives and decide which to follow (or, more often, come up with a synthesis).  Sometimes I bookmark those, so there are quite a few of the form r.slaw, r.bundt cake, r.tomato jam... 

When I make a recipe, I add it to my z.made bookmark, and often add Notes.  One of my favorite parts of the EYB site is the up-to-the-minute stream of members' notes on recipes and books on the front page.  Aside from their intrinsic interest, often they alert me to recipes in books I have that I've overlooked, or spark an idea.  Reviewing the z.made bookmark can be a help when meal planning -- or just need a little glow of accomplishment. 

To keep a lid on book-buying, I regularly check cookbooks out of the local library. While I'm there, I make a note of any titles that appeal to me for future reading [this is a small college town with a steady stream of new donations and high circulation generally].  Those get added to My Bookshelf in EYB, with a 'library' bookmark.  If and when I take out one of them, they get moved to the 'library - checked out' bookmark. 

The library lists are examples of the many books on my EYB Bookshelf that I don't actually own; I also have book wishlists organized under bookmarks like 'cuisines', 'preserving', 'home/seasonal', and 'reading'.  The books (and magazines) that I do own, less than a third of the ones on My Bookshelf in EYB, have their own 'kitchen shelf' bookmark, so they can be used in the ingredient or recipe searches.  But I've sometimes done recipe searches through the libray bookmarks too, when nothing satisfactory turns up in the kitchen shelf search, and have more than once checked out a book to cook a particular dish or two.  EYB has turned the library into a handy 'annex' to the kitchen!  And has lengthened, but helped me manage, my wishlists.

When I'm reading through a library cookbook, one I've borrowed from a friend, or when I buy a new one, I bookmark the recipes that I want to try, so there are many recipe bookmarks of the form c.Plenty, c.Bombay Kitchen, etc.  Way more manageable than Post-It notes! Looking over the recipes in EYB's newly indexed books has also helped me eliminate books from the wishlist, or add to it.

The EYB blog posts on 'recently featured' books and recipes, with links to online versions, are an outstanding way to get more familiar with the content and context of new cookbooks.  This morning I was transported by clicking through on some of the gorgeous photos from Southern Italian Desserts, to food blogs with illuminating reports on making the recipes and a solid interview with the author.  I am Not A Baker, a cook without a mixer or a springform pan or in fact any real enthusiasm for desserts, but if I were to read one dessert cookbook, this would be the one.  EYB efficiently (and attractively) organizes that window to the net.

You've given me a lot of terrific information.  Thank you.  I've been playing around on the site, but haven't quite figured out the bookmarks yet, even after reading the "How To," but I'll get there.  I'm so happy for this information because I think that once I have it all figured out I will enjoy and make use of my cookbooks so much more.

Thanks to everyone. 

^Ellabee, wow, I am awed by your Bookmark organization! 

Laureljean, while my Bookmarks are not nearly as elaborate as ellabee's, I do something a bit different that may be of use to you.  I have my bookmarks divided into 4 categories:

Cook Later: recipes that seem intriguing that I'd like to cook

Favorites: recipes that I've cooked and they were so good that they're a favorite.  This is further broken down into sub-categories of types of dishes and ingredients, eg, Favorite Chicken Recipes, Favorite Fish Recipes, Favorite Bean Recipes, Favorite Grains Recipes, Favorite Greens Recipes, Favorite Root Vegetables, Favorite Stews: Meat, Favorite Stews: Vegetarian, etc etc etc.  (I've only listed a small sample of all of the categories I have.)

Reviews: these are recipes I've cooked, liked, and written a Note about, but they didn't rise to the level of a Favorite recipe.

X-Rated: these are recipes that I've cooked and really didn't like and don't want to make the mistake of making again!  Thankfully, there are only 25 recipes in this category. 

25?  I think that's quite a few.  :)

I have to figure out this bookmark thing.  I don't know why it escapes me.  Frustrating. 

Laureljean, is it the mechanics of adding a Bookmark or the concept that's unclear?

If it's the idea, It might help to think of it as a tag, and all the recipes (or books) that have that tag are a list.  Any one recipe, or book, can be on any number of lists.

As to mechanics:

If you open up 'my Bookshelf' and click on 'Books', you'll notice that each book has a little row of symbols: stars, a word balloon (Notes), people symbol (how many members have the book on their bookshelf; if you click on this you see a list of them, a great way to find other cooks with the same interests/tastes), a chain (linked versions of the book), and a symbol with a little plus sign.  That plus thingy is the 'add a bookmark' symbol, and if you click on it you get a chance to add an existing bookmark or make up a new one and add it.

I see by your profile you're a baker; maybe scroll down your bookshelf and pick out your absolute favorite baking books, giving them a Bookmark like, oh, 'baking favorites', or anything you want (within some character limit).  You can always delete the bookmark later, so don't be afraid to experiment.

Thank you, thank you for all of your responses!  I've added some bookmarks.  You've been so much help.  I'll keep practicing.  I especially like the fact that I can bookmark recipes I would like to try from my cookbooks.  Usually I will see them, think I want to try them some time, and then forget about them.  This way I can keep track of them, a very useful tool.