I rarely buy cookbooks at full retail. I found a pristine hardcover copy of Julia's 'The Way to Cook' at a junk shop for $12, and a copy of Larousse about the same vintage as yours for around $5.

Addall.com is a great meta-search engine which searches online used book stores; you can find some real bargains there.

I love going to estate sales, and Kevin bought an 8 mm movie projector at the last one we went to, and it works fine. We have a lot of home movies from the 1950s that our grandparents took of my sister and me (Kevin was not yet born), and while we also have those on DVD now, the transfer to VHS tape years ago was not edited well.

Today I received The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger, and it looks like it will be a good book. I also recently got Bread Machines For Dummies and was rather disappointed with that - perhaps because I do not qualify as a "dummy", but I simply did not find it helpful, and I think its tips are misguided. Anyway, I've been making bread since I was eight, and so I feel very comfortable using my own instincts when it comes to making bread, even with the machine. I have yet to make pizza dough in the machine, and I'm out of semolina flour, which I normally add to pizza dough.

Last week-end Kevin and I cleared out about five hundred DVDs from bookshelves in the living room and started putting them in books with sleeves so that we can reclaim the bookshelf space. I have stacks of books in my bedroom that need to find a home. The DVD cases will go into the attic, but I kept ones that are autographed or are special compilations out on a shelf. We already had over six hundred DVDs in books, and this does not include Blu-ray discs. Kevin gets free Blu-ray discs at work, and he used to get free DVDs - many of which we have never gotten around to watching. Kevin has software that will keep track of the DVD titles we have, and he can scan the barcodes on the cases with his tablet to get the information automatically.

I'm glad that I now have more space for books, although I may get rid of a few when I have time to reorganize them. It's rare for me to get rid of books, however, unless I absolutely cannot find space for them.

Lars

Yeah, the only problem with getting more cookbooks is figuring out where to put them. You did well, Lars, to make more shelf space. I need to do that, too. Right now, both of my "new" books follow me around the house, and wherever I'm sitting, I'll pick one up and read a bit.

I learned a bit about Macaroons, or Macarons. They were featured on the American Bake Off, or whatever it's called, and on Masterchef. So, Jerry suggested I see if the big book had a recipe. It not only has recipes, it had the history of them. They are apparently a very old cookie, dating back at least to the 17th century in Nancy. This book had you pounding both blanched almonds and bitter almonds (I have no idea if those are even available, or where) with a mortar and pestle, and adding egg whites gradually. I won't go into all it said, but I was intrigued that it had you using a mortar and pestle, and adding the egg whites 1/2 white at a time. How do you do that?!

Sally

The first thing I look for in second-hand stores and yard sales are cookbooks. I did mention to the owner of a stall at the market that there were no cookbooks. She had hundreds of books....paperback and hardcover but no cookbooks. She said that she has trouble getting cookbooks as no one wants to get rid of them.

A friend of mine highly recommended that Bread Lovers cookbook to me Lars. You did good!

I have that Beth Hensperger cookbook too, Lars, and I used it a lot when I first got the bread machine. Not as much now, I seem to be in a rut and make my favorites over and over again, instead of new ones.

Sally, I have a newer version of Larousse, it's huge and heavy and takes up too much space, but it's informative, that's for sure.

I just went through my cookbooks this weekend. We're working on the kitchen renovation and I was trying to get down to two shelves of cookbooks. My standard was that I had to use the book within the last two years. Then I realized that I should keep Fanny Farmer and Grandma's old Farm Journal cookbooks and.....well.....I still have too many cookbooks.

I have yet to make the macarons, although I did buy them in Chicago. Maybe when it cools off a bit, especially since the stand mixer and food processor simplify the recipe more than a mortar and pestle, LOL.

Annie

Yeah, I figure that maybe the newer versions use more modern equipment. That being said, I do love using my mortar and pestle. For some reason, I find it very satisfying, especially if I have frustrations to work out. lol

Every once in a while, I'll go through all the magazines I've saved for whatever recipe caught my eye at the time. I vow to just cut out the recipe and get rid of the magazine, but that's so time consuming. I still haven't gotten rid of the magazines, because every time I go through them, I get reminded of the great recipes I want to try some day. Then I forget them again. Sigh.

Sally