it's just too much pedantry for this girl. I adore cookbooks, own hundreds and read them like novels, but seldom find any new ones these days that interest me. Present company excluded, of course (and in this household we love Charcuterie particularly), cookbooks all seem to be either too restaurant-y, too Food Network-y, or way too limited in scope (you know, like the cooking of ABC province of XYZ country on Wednesday afternoons). I miss the days when you could just become immersed in somebody's interesting point of view. Perhaps that's why Ottolenghi's books are so popular -- though, I guess I'm in the minority as I like the first one much better than Plenty. I agree with your idea "Does it make me want to cook?" Elizabeth David's writing makes me want to cook and gives me the idea. But I turn to Mark Bittman, James Beard or Marion Cunningham to get me started. Thank you for your many thought-provoking posts, including this one. I love to read cookbooks to get ideas, and although I love a good photo, the cookbooks I go back to are ones that don't have any or hardly any photos. They have recipes that actually work and turn out really nice dishes, but at the same time are simple enough to make at home. How many recipes do we actually make from one cookbook? Which is why online recipe sites and food magazine websites are so popular, not to mention free! That's also why