evaluation for cookbooks

Title: The Pleasures of Italian Cooking

It's a book for general people who want to cook for family and friends. Initially I think it is easy to catch, but as I read on, I find that there is nothing but recipes again and again almost without any pictures. The only six pictures are about some dishes irrelevant to the recipes and lack of esthetics, which increases the difficulty to follow the instruction and feel dull and unwilling to open it. Though all the recipes are about Italian dishes, it is not well organized so that people can hardly find what they want due to the shortcomings in index and categories, which don’t show up in this book. And that indeed makes people confused and tired out.

Although the author is said to be eminent and experienced, the book just leaves an irksome impression on me and feel that the author merely automatically lists the recipes without thinking about how to conduct people effectively and cultivate their interests, what contradicts to its title about “pleasures”.

Title: The Cooking of Italy

This book belongs to a series of cookbooks as I browse the bookshelf and take a piles of them, attracted by their covers. They all have colorful covers and much more like art books than cookbooks, which helps to gain the amazing visual attraction.

While browsing, I am surprised to find that the book is full of pictures not only related to the recipes but also about the local conditions and the process to make a dish. Also, the book contains the local conditions introducing me to an exotic and fancy world, which arouses my curiosity and impels me to discover the recipes. As it has the pictures for process, I believe that everyone can easily catch it and does a good job. The book is divided into different parts according to the districts and owns an effective organization so that people can find what they desire without obstacles. Besides, the book is so detailed especially with the process pictures that there is no need to worry about your cooking skills.

It is indeed a book for everyone and intrigues people to explore the cooking world.