Remember Encyclopedias?

[Rusty Blade]

When I was a kid -- long before internet was envisioned -- the Encyclopedia was always part of our household. Twenty or thirty volumes from A to Z and often a Dictionary and book of maps included. Updated every few years. These volumes provided hours of interesting reading and a handy dandy tool for school projects. I can remember sitting in front of the book case in the family room reading about things that interested me. Such a great resource. And now, the encyclopedia has gone the way of extinction. Replaced by the world wide web and Google.

Did you have a set of encyclopedias when you were younger?

 

[Billski]

I have found at least 5 books from E. Americana . People here throw these away. And they throw away other valuable things. Instead of reading a book that has many many pages, a person can find interesting subjects in an Ency. I once read about Urbain Le_Verrier. He found the 8th planet in our solar system. He found it by means of difficult mathematics. The orbit of the 7th planet was strange. This showed that another planet further out was causing the strangeness. He was skilled at difficult math and discovered Neptune. Reading this was better than a short story.

 

[sanookd]

When I was a kid -- long before internet was envisioned -- the Encyclopedia was always part of our household. Twenty or thirty volumes from A to Z and often a Dictionary and book of maps included. Updated every few years. These volumes provided hours of interesting reading and a handy dandy tool for school projects. I can remember sitting in front of the book case in the family room reading about things that interested me. Such a great resource. And now, the encyclopedia has gone the way of extinction. Replaced by the world wide web and Google.

Did you have a set of encyclopedias when you were younger?

Sure, Britannica and Funk & Wagnalls I think we’re the 2 most popular. If I remember Funk was sold through the grocery stores or something like a volume a quarter or something like that.

 

[emwolf]

It was important to my parents and I learned a lot. I'm the 60s we had World Book. In 78 we got Britannica which was really comprehensive. I used them regularly. I recall a day in the early 2000s when the newspaper I worked for got rid of their paper references. Sad day and very prescient of the future of the printed word.

 

[Atlantic59]

I loved them, hours and hours of interesting reading. We had Americana and some relatives had the Britannica. Stuffing my head full of information that was useless to most other people was my idea of a good time.

 

[sjblon]

When I was young we had the World Book Encyclopedia set and the Childcraft set. We kept the World Book set and a couple of dictionaries on a bookshelf in the dining room. We spent hours in discussions after dinner solving the world's problems and often consulted them as a referee to resolve factual disputes.

 

[FarmerTan]

I have found at least 5 books from E. Americana . People here throw these away. And they throw away other valuable things. Instead of reading a book that has many many pages, a person can find interesting subjects in an Ency. I once read about Urbain Le_Verrier. He found the 8th planet in our solar system. He found it by means of difficult mathematics. The orbit of the 7th planet was strange. This showed that another planet further out was causing the strangeness. He was skilled at difficult math and discovered Neptune. Reading this was better than a short story.

Amen. My memory is bad now, but I'm pretty sure that's how I found out the information you just related.

My Dad bought me a "Funk and Wagnalls" encyclopedia set, one week at a time, for $5 a week, at the local grocery store if you bought a certain amount of groceries.

Yes, I was that weird kid that sat around reading the dictionary and encyclopedia for fun.

Looking back, I blame my extremely high intelligence quota (or is that qoutation?) on my near sightedness and heart failure!

Not sure where I got extremely handsome face, I've never had plastic surgery.

I married into wealth. Or so she told me!

My charm I figure I just got lucky.

 

[Scrape&Splash]

Encyclopedias are important. The printed word has a way of keeping revisionists at bay. Also valuable is the History of Civilization by Will Durant. Give vintage encyclopedias a home. Care for them. Pass them on to people who will do the same.

 

[Owen Bawn]

My Dad bought a set of Brittanicae at the public library's discard book sale when the set was being replaced with a new edition. I spent thousands of hours in those volumes.

The other thing we had was a set of The Harvard Classics- the 'five foot shelf of books.' It was a set of 51 volumes put together by Harvard president Charles Eliot around 1905-10. Introduced me to everything from Aristotle to Teddy Roosevelt & everything in between. Between the Brittanica and the Harvard Classics I became an educated man. School just provided discipline and a way to organize and contextualize what I read at leisure. And they taught me Latin at school.

I bought the Harvard Classics for my kindle a few years ago. I think it cost $1.99. Actually my kindle is loaded with collections like that- the kind of books you can open to just about any page and begin to read. Great options for travel delays.

 

[Toothpick]

I remember we had a set. I also remember I cracked a volume maybe....3 times? I'm guess during one of the many moves my folks just left them behind because I have no idea where they ended up but I sure don't have them!

 

[Doc4]

We had World Book. Endless enjoyment flipping the pages ... somehow the subject-randomness of the alphabetical sorting made it all the more interesting.

We couldn't afford Britannica but it was considered The Best.

 

[Owen Bawn]

Encyclopedias are important. The printed word has a way of keeping revisionists at bay. Also valuable is the History of Civilization by Will Durant. Give vintage encyclopedias a home. Care for them. Pass them on to people who will do the same.

I just finished Durant's 'Caesar & Christ' last week. I loaded nearly all of his Story of Civilization series onto my kindle, & I've now read 3 of them. I love reading old history books that are now classics themselves. I'm now reading Francis Parkman's 8 volume series on France & England in North America. Such elegant narrative history. And the great thing about these books are that they're all now in the public domain, so you can get them for pennies or for free for your kindle.

 

[BigFoot]

We had a used set from the 1950's that we bought in the mid 70's when I needed them. There was no way in tarnation Mom and Dad were able to buy new ones.

 

[Ravenonrock]

The World Book encyclopedia was my default nightly reader when I was a boy. I would just pick a letter, then flip through the pages until I found something of interest, usually within a few pages. I basically read the volumes from A-Z, as well as the Atlas which I found fascinating. I did find it more challenging to become a reader of fiction in my early teens until I discovered historical fiction, which I am still a fan of today.

 

[Basil]

I still have mine!

 

[Canadian Mountain Man]

The World Book encyclopedia was my default nightly reader when I was a boy. I would just pick a letter, then flip through the pages until I found something of interest, usually within a few pages. I basically read the volumes from A-Z, as well as the Atlas which I found fascinating. I did find it more challenging to become a reader of fiction in my early teens until I discovered historical fiction, which I am still a fan of today.
View attachment 1135317

Almost exactly this. I'd pick a random volume and then randomly read. If I came across something in an article I didn't understand I'd go grab another volume and read up on that topic. Kind of how I'll read wiki (ya I know, not always a reliable source) or other online references now.

Only difference between you and I is the World Book was daytime reading and Hardy Boys or something similar was bedtime.

 

[ackvil]

I went to the public library and loved using the encyclopedia. While there I met a fellow whose mission was to read the entire set of books.

 

[shavefan]

I remember when my parents bought their Encyclopedia Britannica set from a door to door salesman back in the late 70's. They still have it.

I would read it at random also, but used it as source material for school projects too.

 

[shavefan]

I remember when my parents bought their Encyclopedia Britannica set from a door to door salesman back in the late 70's. They still have it.

I would read it at random also, but used it as source material for school projects too.

Edit: which reminds me, they bought a Kirby vacuum cleaner from a door to door salesman too. They still have that also.

 

[shavefan]

I remember when my parents bought their Encyclopedia Britannica set from a door to door salesman back in the late 70's. They still have it.

I would read it at random also, but used it as source material for school projects too.

Edit: which reminds me, they bought a Kirby vacuum cleaner from a door to door salesman around the same time. They still use it.