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My favorite cookbooks :

For basics :
Fannie Farmer (the new edition)
McCall's (the very old edition)

For recipes :
Italian Country Cookbook - Rogers & Gray
Jacques Pepin - Fast Food My Way & Simple and Healthy Cooking
Ken Hom's Hot Wok: Over 150 One-Pan Wonders

I like/recommend these because they're good quality recipes & very simple, eg. typically 10 ingredients or less, designed to be done in half an hour, not like some professional chef's recipes that are 4 pages and 100 steps for one dish.