Cook book Dilemma

I am a cook book junkie.  I've collected more than my fair share of cookbooks over the years, but one thing I've noticed is that many of them sit, untouched on my hutch. They still look new. I peruse them every now and then and put them back. For instance, I've owned a couple of Martha Stewart cook books that I received as an intro gift when I joined a cook book club many many years ago. Yes, I belonged to a cook book club.  To my knowledge, I've never made anything out of them except the pie dough recipe. As both my cooking skills and tastes have evolved over the years, I've sold some and given away more. I check most cook books out from the library now.  Stacks and stacks of them! There are definitely more cook books published these days mostly in thanks to the popularity of the Food Network. I refer to allrecipes.com often. I check to see how Alton Brown would make something Now that I have a Kindle, I've downloaded a couple of cook books there too. I'm not sure the Kindle is the right place for cook books.  Something gets lost from the hardcover edition to the digital edition, but that's a topic for another day.

 So, with that said, I have a question for anyone out there reading this. If you like cooking, do you collect cook books? Are there only a handful worth having? If so, what are your indispensible cook books? Do you prefer searching the web for culinary inspiration? Have any cook books been huge disappointments?

I'm definitely in the trimming-the-cook-book-collection mode. I've sold four cook books recently on the Amazon used marketplace and I continue to trim the fat, so to speak.  So, please tell me about your cook book collections or even if you don't have lots of cook books. I don't want to have these books just to have them. I want to use them.  Certainly there are definitely the go-to cook books and some come out only seasonally.  That's okay.  I'm more about having a truly smaller yet more loved collection. Tell me how technology has changed your way of thinking in the kitchen as well. Thanks.