Businesslike, devoid of mystical cocktail lore (cf the Fine Art of Mixing Drinks), but about 2000 recipes, nearly ten times as many as its similarly-priced competitors on the remainder table. No pretty photos, but who cares. ( )

It's taken me a while to find a cocktail compendium that I was willing to buy. I wanted a good number of recipes, both classic and modern, to have it indexed by both recipe title and ingredients (and not just the main one), and to preferably be spiral bound so that it will stay open as I'm concocting my drink. This fits the bill perfectly so far, and I've had no trouble in terms of finding and enjoying drinks from it. It also includes a short section at the beginning on terms, techniques, planning a party, stocking a bar, and glassware types and uses. ( )