doorway into a new experience I would enjoy or find useful. Something like a travel-and-food book with recipes from a place I'd like to go, or a new take on something that interests me like grilling or breadmaking or cooking from one's garden. I have the big basic technique books, the dozens of cookie books because this little treat fascinates me, the classics on Italian and French cooking, enough of the big restaurant books that I know I don't really want any more of them. It's hard to think of something that I would actually buy. My favorite ckkboooos that I always use are the New Better Homes and Gardens andBetty Crocker.Actually I wore out my BH G from 1972 and got a new one in 2005, I also bought my newlywed daughter one for Christmas in 2006. Having written two cookbooks that have been edited many times and still contain typos, I can only say that there are typo gremlins out there waiting to get into your book. Cleaning up the book takes almost as much time as writing it. It happens. The first printing is often the roughest so sometimes it pays to wait. I use Ratios and Twenty fairly regularly when cooking, just to remind myself of the basic science and execution of cooking. The best indicator of a successful cookbook is how stained and warped the pages are. Some cookbooks are pretty to look at and fun to read but rarely get opened when the knife