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Two recent aquisitions:

I do have a fascination with cookbooks, and I'll admit to a raging goodwill addiction, but I try to be discerning in my selections, and not just buy any old kitschy book that comes along. Books are already crowding out my dry goods, and since J. seems to feel he needs a backup of every item in the kitchen (seriously, we live less than 5 minutes BY FOOT, from a totally acceptable grocery store, do we really need three bottles of soy sauce? ) I do have to keep it under control. I have my eye on a spot for built in cookbook specific bookshelves one day, but still, there must be guidelines.
The Outdoor Cook's Bible here joins a sub category of what I guess I would call "special circumstances" cookbooks. Included are Bradford Angier's Wilderness Cookery (nice line drawn chapter on foraging wild plants), The First Book of Boy's Cooking from 1957, Patience Gray's Honey from a Weed and also M.F.K. Fisher's amazing 1942 How to Cook a Wolf. This last one is about food and life under rationing during WWII, and is the only cookbook I can think of that speaks knowingly of iceboxes commandeered by the local red cross for blood plasma. Jim Harrison hangs out here too, pretty much any time he mentions food. Also, I'm waiting for just the right copy of Judith Jones' and Angus Cameron's L.L. Bean cookbook to come along.
Belonging to an established area of interest, writing style, book design, recipe quality and sheer novelty do count, but aren't necessarily enough all alone. So for example, the interesting observation that frogs will jump at red flannel is awesome, but maybe not quite enough to buy a book for. What probably put this one over the top is more the aggregation of useful and unusual facts, pictures and ingredients, rather than any particular recipe.
This one, Patonga Country Kitchen, barely made the cut, but the chapter on pickles won me over. I'm always looking for an interesting pickle. I'm excited to try the tomato-strawberry jam this summer. I really loved this tomato jam recipe, and I love this pasta sauce. And, I have a good feeling about the scone recipes, a well tested baking recipe is really something to take seriously.