by Kristina Emmons

Created on: January 06, 2009

The digital age is a new and exciting time, and computers are a tool to explore possiblities and gain knowledge like never before in the history of humanity. There is free information to be had at the touch of a button, a trigger to which our fingers have easily adjusted and even crave. In the realm of food there can be found dozens of types of brownie recipes to peruse, hundreds of cakes, millions of dishes! It's exciting, especially if you are a perfectionist on a mission to find just the right blend of spices for an out-of-this-world dish. Many of the recipes we find are from the masters of cuisine.

But a cookbook itself-nothing can replace one. The joy of walking through a bookstore and fingering countless volumes of recipes and photographs simply cannot be mimicked in cyberspace. Cookbooks are art, not mere collections of ingredients and methods. Their authors, illustrators, and photographers pour themselves into its the pages, and what can be found there is a sense of identity, love, and passion. There is a beginning and there is an end, and between them, a story.

I would argue that people purchase cookbooks for the feeling they get in reading them. The author's message and handprint relate to the reader in some way, and the pictures not only sell the food but give us a sense of beauty. It's far more enjoyable to sit down on a couch, a bed, an airplane, or even a toilet with a favorite volume in hand than with a laptop. Further, who can lovingly dog-ear a page on a computer screen, or handwrite notes and adjustments beside a recipe? Signing the inside of a book intended as a gift is a rite of passage.

Merely printing a recipe from the computer can be convenient, but printed recipes vary in shape and size and are easily lost in the kitchen shuffle. How many misfit piles of these do most homes already have? A book is more likely to be found in a timely fashion. Lastly, tangibility, accessibility, and form are important attributes that a cookbook can bring versus cyberspace. Walking over to the bookshelf and flipping through various recipes in a book or books can be faster than logging on and searching over the computer, especially if you are not near to a computer or cannot print out a recipe for lack of accessibility.

Overall, while cyberspace will have its mark in diminishing cookbook sales, cookbooks and the contribution they bring are here to stay.

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