Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express

Picking out a cookbook can be a very personal endeavor.  My ritual is to approach the “Culinary Arts” shelf at my local bookstore with bravado, picking up whatever I can lay my hands on and flipping through the pages, allowing for three pit stops along the way.  If I don’t see at least one recipe I’d like to make within those three arbitrary pages, I put it back on the shelf.  Otherwise, another three pages are inspected and if they pass muster too, a purchase is born.