the first community cookbook I was ever aware of from my hometown of Lakeland, Georgia
I am in the process of writing and editing my first cookbook. It’s something I have been working on for the last five years. When I set out to do this, social media was abound but I do not remember the abundance of food and recipes being shared on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Five years ago I had never heard of Pinterest. Today I cannot launch social media without being bombarded with shares of recipes and pictures of friends culinary creations.
When I began speaking of writing a cookbook, many of my friends asked if my plans included an electronic version of the book. At this time, my first effort will be made available in the iBooks Store via Apple and iTunes (ALERT: buy an iPad now!) However, it did make me ponder this thought…will the internet (social media sites to be specific) and electronic versions of books replace the conventional versions of traditional cookbooks?
I realize for some the answer to this question will based on how old each of us are. Some of us will never own a tablet or digital reader; therefore, electronic versions are out of the question. Some of us that own these devices will possibly never buy a “hard” copy of a book ever again. I, for one, really enjoy taking my iPad into the kitchen to use for cooking. I can stand it up easily and it is simple to interact with while I am preparing food.
What will become of the handed-down, family cookbooks, recipe boxes? I’m sure they will continue to be passed down, but don’t expect those whom you give them to to have the same excitement over the form in which those treasured recipes exist. Something to consider is putting them into a form that can be saved on a computer or backed up to a cloud service. This way, everything will be in a format that will appeal to everyone. Also, it’s never a bad idea to have a backup copy of family recipes, no matter what format you have them in.
I would love to hear your comments on this. Where are you presently getting your recipes? Have social media sties influenced what you cook? If you were to buy a cookbook in the future, what form would it be in?