How is your day going? If you're looking for inspiration (as I was), spend some time in your local bookstore in the cooking section. Oh my! There are so many great titles releasing right now as the holidays roll in. I found a few that I scooped up immediately, one is called La vie en rose by Murielle Rousseau (heavenly French recipes!) with illustrations by Berlin-based artist Stefanie Roth and the other is Gemüse and Gemüse by Delphine de Montalier (a vegetarian cookbook, gemüse means vegetable in German). With food photos to die for, styling to learn from and even some personal references to family along with pretty illustrations, they are both such inspiring cookbooks. It's dark here now and well, I just removed my precious new books from their bag in my somewhat dark living room so excuse the poor lighting. But I couldn't wait until tomorrow to share -- the 'feeling' may be lost and no doubt I'll be onto other things! :) So here's a few snaps of what inspired me today...

I can't wait to crack them both open and start preparing meals for Fall. But this post isn't a book review for either of these titles, it's merely to say that the cookbooks in your local bookstore may be a great place to look for inspiration. The presentation of food in newer books seems to be stronger than ever -- styled beautifully with food so enticing that you wish each page had a scratch 'n sniff sticker so you could experience the smell of each recipe to go along with the visuals.  ha ha. :) No seriously, the photos really draw you in and make you want to cook but even more... they give you ideas for color palettes and even styling ideas for the home. I was looking at one and noticed how beautifully olives looked with turquoise dinnerware and hadn't given it much thought before today... now I'm thinking of how nice it would be for presenting a meal or setting a table. So, need some inspiration and unable to find a decorating book you really click with lately? Try a cookbook, you never know what could come out of it -- in addition to a great meal of course!

And a BIG P.S. on this post because I hope major booksellers everywhere read these words and put this into practice immediately... it's popular here, at least in the bookstores I've visited, that books that have photographs in them -- like coffee table books, cookbooks, art and design books, etc. have a "customer" copy on top a stack of shrink-wrapped copies. I LOVE THIS. I have been telling my husband for YEARS when we were living in the states that bookstores should have a customer copy and then all the others should be in shrink wrap. Why? It made me feel annoyed with people would take books into the restroom, cafe, or even just sit in those chairs at large booksellers for hours, breaking the spines, bending pages, etc. and then not buying them. It was getting so bad in our local Barnes & Noble that I would only go to flip through a book that I was interested in and then I'd go home and buy it on Amazon because at least that way I knew the book was new - it would arrive unused and in shrink wrap. I once bought a book for $50 and it had a coffee stain on a few of the pages! Now that I'm in Germany, I go to the bookstore and find my idea in practice and let me tell you, it's a great idea and not just because I had it. he he. It truly makes buying a book a wonderful experience again because well, I want to be the first to crack it open and smell that fresh book smell. :) Does this sort of thing matter to you?

(images: holly becker for decor8)