Cookbooks can be found at bookstores or on Internet

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, June 6, 2001 | 8:30 a.m.

Most of us buy cookbooks at one time or another, whether to use ourselves or to give away at holidays or celebratory occasions. Today it seems there are boundless titles and almost as many options regarding where to buy them.

Las Vegas lacks a bookstore devoted solely to the cookbook, such as Kitchen Arts and Letters in Manhattan, or Food Arts in Los Angeles. But local bookstores have large cooking sections: Borders, Barnes & Noble, and the used book store Albion Books, to name just three.

Furthermore, for those online, the possibilities extend to websites devoted to the sale of books. Two of the best known are Amazon.com, which bills itself as "The Earth's Largest Bookstore," and alldirect.com, another huge site which often undersells Amazon. In order to determine the best way to shop for cookbooks, each of the five sites listed were visited. The results were interesting, to say the least:

Naturally, what you look for first are prices, but convenience, friendliness, availability and attractiveness of display are also factors. On these last four, Borders scores high. There are nearly 2,500 cookbook titles, best sellers such as Suzanne Somers' "Get Skinny On Fabulous Food" ($16), Erma Rombauer's classic "The Joy of Cooking" for ($35), and "Raw" by Juliano ($32), all competitive prices.

When you come to Borders, you'll want to look for stickered discount books. Sometimes books are discounted 30 and 40 percent, and there are lots of good deals here for anyone with a sharp eye.

These are also very comfortable stores, where the coffeehouse concept is integrated into the feel of the store. A Barnes & Noble usually has plush chairs to sink down into, and Starbucks Cafes are usually attached to them. There are also library-style tables where you can browse selections.

The selection is around 1,000 cookbook and diet cookbook titles at any given time, and the prices are again competitive. The cookbook area is more sectioned here than at Borders. The divisions include appliance cookbooks, diet cookbooks, international cookbooks and others. Prices are again competitive and it's always a good idea to look for deals.

Some items are marked "Best Buys" and are discounted. The complete "Williams-Sonoma Entertaining Cookbook" was discounted almost 50 percent to $19.98. "Grilling 4 Dummies" is currently $19.99, and so is "The Art of Eating," a classic compendium of volumes by M.F.K. Fisher.

For instance, "Trattoria," an Italian cookbook by TV chef Biba Caggiano, was $25 and is now $11.95. "Out To Lunch" by English food critic Paul Levy is $7.95, as is Sheila Lukins' "All Around the World Cookbook" and both were almost $20 when they hit the shelves.

Albion will even buy or trade cookbooks, providing they are in top condition. For hardback books, they pay between 25 and 50 percent of what they would reprice the book for.

If you use the U.S. Postal Service and order three or more books, you pay less than $1 per book for shipping costs. If you use UPS Ground, the costs will be slightly higher, but you can get your books in two to four business days. Those who require the books right away can pay extra, usually a lot extra, and have them shipped within 24 hours.

At Amazon you can search for rare and used books, or just enter a title when a book is in print. There is also a bargain-book section, with its own cooking, food and wine subdivision. Among bargains there at the moment were "Fannie Farmer's Baking Book" by Marion Cunningham, only $12.99 new and $8.99 used, and "Sugar Busters" for only $14.37.

Alldirect.com is actually less expensive than Amazon, if you can go by a few comparison prices. The problem is that the low prices means that the site tends to run out of stock, so you may have to wait up to six weeks for delivery. But just as an example, both the books by Suzanne Somers and Ruth Reichl mentioned above are in stock, and both around $14.50 at this website -- almost 40 percent cheaper than retail.

The other nice thing about these two Internet sites is their feature called shopping cursor. Hit the shopping cursor and around eight other websites will be posted on your screen, and a comparison pricing of the book title you are seeking will come up with it. That can mean additional savings.

In the final analysis, preferences regarding format will be entirely personal, and some people will always be more comfortable in real bookstores. The bottom line is there are more ways than ever to find cookbooks, to go with an ever-increasing number of titles.