I love cookbooks and I come by this honestly. My mom loved them as well and I always knew that for Christmas or birthdays a new cookbook was always much appreciated. She would read them cover to cover and then systematically go through and make a list of what she wanted to try. I have some of her old books and I love it when I see a notation beside a recipe like "Geo (my father) likes" or "not worth the trouble".

My mom is coming up to 92 and doesn't cook anymore. I was given quite a few of her treasured cookbooks when they moved a few years ago as well as her recipe card collection. She was so organized that she had every dinner party she ever hosted and the menu she served with the cookbook it was from! An early Martha Stewart.

When my parents were moving into a smaller place a couple of months ago and I was helping them, I came across a brown wrapped package. I asked what is this? When my mom saw the wrapped package she said aww and I knew she didn't want to throw it away so I took it and said that I would keep it. She told me that it was her very first cookbook when she got married (over 68 years ago) and she didn't know how to cook when she got married. It is quite something. There isn't much left of it and part of it is tied together with string, very well used and loved.

I wrote to the Good Housekeeping people and showed them pictures of the book and how much she enjoyed it and they kindly sent me a new copy. My mom sat with it for about half an hour and looked at all the pictures and said oh I wish I still cooked, I would have loved to have had this. It will now be my treasured book and I'm looking forward to many wonderful meals.