Kindle vs books

on my ipad for a number of books eg FWSY, Tartine, but also love my hard copies of others eg Bread, Bread Bible. Haven't tried to print but you could copy page into another app eg Notes and print from there. a bit laborious but it would work.

I scale recipes on my computer and print from there.

Leslie

I would not recommend Kindle-ized cookbooks.  My experience is limited to just one I've bought:  RL Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible.  I've found it infuriating to navigate, with ingredients tables separated from relevant procedures and sections accessible by links rather than successively arranged as logically expected.  Do not expect a Kindle-ized cookbook to be simply a digitized PDF of the hardcopy.  Beranbaum's was ASCI digitized (not bitmapped) and reformatted for Kindle.  Even copy/pasting from the book in the laptop Kindle app (to create annotated/modified personal versions of formulae in Word or Excel) is annoying due to the formatting constraints and developers' tagging each clipboard copy you make with the copyright info of the book, that you have to delete once you've pasted into your destination document.  And of course, there are no color pictures of the dishes, a nice feature in many modern cookbooks (with notable exceptions going back to Joy of Cooking, Julia Child etc.).

Tom

I have a number of cook books on the iPad and if I want to print a page I just take a screen shot and email it to a computer with  a printer to print.

Gerhard

i have a kindle fire hd & several cookbooks on the kindle. if i want to save a recipe i send it to dropbox (also on my kindle) and save it there. if i want to have a hard copy, it goes to the wifi printer.

hope this helps,

claudia

This is an interesting discussion! I prefer buying cookbooks as Kindle books because I'm trying to reduce the number of things I bring into the house (lighten my load) and the Kindle books take up no additional space. But I think they work well for me because of the process I use when I use a recipe, which not everyone would want to do:

Whether I find a recipe online, in a print book, or on my Kindle, I write it all out in my bullet journal (which I use for notetaking, planning, and tasks). Then I convert any volume measurements to grams, and adjust for the whole grain flour I make in my grain mill. This could be ingredient substitutions or measurement changes. Then I write out the instructions in my own shorthand, which helps ensure that I actually read through it all before beginning, and it lets me abbreviate for my own kitchen process/tools. 

Once I've finished baking the item, I write down notes to indicate any trouble spots I ran into, how it turned out, and what I'd do to adjust the recipe next time I make it. 

I find this process works well for me because 1. I'm not one to write in books, even little pencil notes; 2. Keeping track of my baking projects in a notebook lets me wrap my head around the recipe before I begin; 3. It makes it easy to share on my blog.

If you're not a methodical type like me this probably sounds like an obnoxious amount of work! lol!

Although, based on price, sentimentality or availability, I may buy a hard copy instead. Often, when I buy a hard copy, I will also buy the Kindle version as well (particularly if it goes on sale for $1-$3 dollars). These are the reasons I generally prefer Kindle books:

1. Recipe searching. Often, I'll have an ingredient I want to use or a type of dish/bread/pastry I want to make (e.g., english muffins, multi-grain, banana bread, mangoes, etc.). I can easily access each of my cookbooks and run a word search. I can also visually scan the table of contents and just tap on the name of whatever I want to make (which is a function available with most books, but not all), and I'll quickly be taken to the recipe. Flipping between recipes is also very easy. (The Kindle app on my phone automatically saves the last few places I was looking in the book, and the bookmark function is very easy to use.)
2. Ease of access. This is somewhat like the recipe searching. I can refer to my Kindle books no matter where I am because I can access them on my phone. I can look at all my cookbooks simultaneously on my commute home if I want to decide what to make next. Also, I have a tablet on my kitchen counter that I use to look at Kindle recipes. It's much easier for me to use the tablet than a physical book (e.g., flipping pages, changing books, amount of counter space used) when following a recipe.
3. Note-taking. I almost never follow a recipe exactly as written. I can add notes to the ingredients/recipes (including volume to weight conversions) so that I can remember how I deviated and to do (or not do!) the same thing the next time I make the recipe.

That being said, some Kindle books are horribly formatted, which makes them impractical or impossible to use. I often rely on Amazon reviews to try to suss out when a book is not worth buying for the Kindle. I also generally love books (the feel, the smell!), so I often buy hard copies of books.

The Kindle sales are amazing. For example, I wanted Tartine No. 3, but did not necessarily want to pay $30 for it. I placed it on my ongoing Kindle wishlist and immediately snatched it up when it went on sale for $2.99. 

I prefer hard copies, but, like Mungie, I jump at 1.99 or 2.99 kindle versions of otherwise pricey cookbooks. And some good bread baking books, like Nils Schöner's "Floury Kitchen" even only exist as e-book (see my old blog post: "Why E-Cookbooks Really Suck - But Some Breads Are Worth It"

Since leafing through e-books or searching for something specific can be a real pain, I usually make a to-do list with one interesting recipe from each book, and copy those into my Paprika recipe program.

Karin