Just how many cookbooks is one person allowed?

I have an addiction. I admit it. It keeps me up at night. I spend hours on it. I scour bookstores, cooking stores, garage sales, the used book section at the library, discount stores, other peoples houses...looking to see what I can find. I hide it from my husband. This addiction has finally surpassed the one I used to have for shoes. Wah! Now that is sad! But it come over me slowly....I didn't even know it was happening....it gained on me over the years....I made excuses....I justified it with a myriad of reasons....my mind played tricks on me. And then one day I woke up and realized I had gone over the edge. My friends started noticing....my husband looked at me with suspicion....my family thinks I have lost my mind....everyone around is judging me....I get defensive....anxiety sets in...I lose sleep....I need help......I need a 12 step program. Gasp!

I can no longer contain them all in my kitchen cabinet, the picture above. I would have thought one cabinet devoted solely to cookbooks would have been enough. But noooo!!!!! At one time I had them in piles on the kitchen counter, until I got sick of looking at the mess and having to clean them.

Therefore, I had to move most of them to the office, and I really don't have the room there either. The office bookcase is full so I just lined them up across the top. Now it is full.

I want cabinets built just for my cookbooks. You got a problem with that? A few years ago I went through a phase where I thought I should, perhaps, get rid of a few. Eck! I gave them to the library. Now when I'm in the library, I see what might be my book! It makes my nuts. Do I buy it back? Do I leave it there? Will I ever use it again? Is that even a valid reason for having it? I just don't know anymore. Since that whole giving them away thing was so traumatic, I stopped, thank goodness. Now I just keep them all, and relish looking at them every day. I bring them into bed....I sit up reading with the light on and looking at pictures for hours...while my husband is sound asleep. He doesn't know my secret. I check them out at the library....so I can at least read them all if I can't own them all.

Don't even get me started on the magazine subscriptions....... I have a special cabinet in the living room just for the magazines.

For those of you who share my addiction have you ever figured out how much money this costs you? I didn't think so. Me neither.

And who gets to decide how many cookbooks is enough anyway? Do we have cookbook police? Come to think of it, that is one job I would like to have.