Before You Buy Low Fat Cookbooks

As we know, the cover doesn't tell the whole story but it's a useful first glimpse at a book. You can get a snapshot of the author, their philosophy and credentials, as well as some one- or two-line reviews of their body of work.

Take a moment to look at the table of contents. This shows you how the book flows from topic to topic. Is the book well laid out? Thumb through the index and see if you can find some key recipe ingredients. Is the index easy to use? Are there sufficient recipes per food group?

Do the recipes provide enough information for your use? Are there enough tips, shortcuts, ideas and suggestions? Look for nutritional analysis, if that's important to you.

Are there enough photographs, illustrations, charts and tables? Do you like step-by-step pictures for more challenging recipes?

Some excellent cookbooks are enormous and perhaps a little daunting; others are skinny with perhaps too few recipes for your liking. Is it the 1,000-recipe tome you need or the 100-recipe one? Are you looking for a particular food group (vegetarian or all-chicken recipes) or an all-purpose book?

If you still can't decide in the bookstore, check out some online reviews. The main booksellers' sites provide publishing-industry reviews, reader reviews, as well as links to other works by the same writer. Check out the publisher's websites, too.