This tip probably isn’t useful to you today, but in many library systems you can request a book at your local library and they will deliver it to you from some other branch that has a copy of it
I think my small public library was donation-based. Very few interesting books there, and no way to browse for and request specific books. Maybe university libraries did that.
Back in the very early 90’s I had a salesman from Britannica show up on my doorstep. I was amenable and ended up buying a set of encyclopedias. I loved them partially because I love books, but I also loved that I had all this information at the ready even if frozen in the time when they were printed.
Now we have the internet and it’s nice and all, but I wish I still had those books.
The Britannica was one of those essential things for every home. It was like having a home computer. It contained as complete a collection of human knowledge that was possible without a full-blown library.
I remember in the 90s looking through them trying to answer a random question I had and then later on going to the library to check out more research material if the Brittanica didn’t satisfy my curiosity.
As great as the internet is, I miss running a finger across the tomes to learn something new about the world.
We had a set of encyclopedias at home when I was a kid and also one called Childcraft that was written for kids. They were great. I spent a lot of time browsing and reading them.
I grew up in a household with the Encyclopedia Britannica (and some kind of a German version of it) and at some point I and my father would look who’s faster, me on my smartphone or he with his books. For newer tropics, he didn’t stand a chance.
The Encyclopædia Britannica (Latin for ‘British Encyclopaedia’) is a general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes[1] and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition. Since 2016, it has been published exclusively as an online encyclopaedia at the website Britannica.com
Printed for 244 years, the Britannica was the longest-running in-print encyclopaedia in the English language. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland, in three volumes.
Copyright (well, under US law, and I assume elsewhere) also doesn’t restrict actually making copies, but distributing those copies. If you want to print out a hard copy of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica website for your own use in the event of Armageddon, I imagine that there’s probably software that will let you do that.
Thanks, I do recall when they announced the last printing. Book collections can get cumbersome things to haul around in our lives and I have many already. If I ran across a more current set maybe I’d bite, but I won’t chase them down. I did already acquire the set of Great Books (classic literature and philosophy collection) that my father bought and dragged around. I’ve read some of the authors, but if I’m being honest I’d admit the 54 volumes are now mostly decorative in function and do look nice up on the shelf. I won’t get rid of them as I see their value, but that also means I have the opportunity to move them…again.
Well, where would you download them? Or if you’re talking about printed books: where would you order them? See?
Never before has anyone accomplished to make me want to throw a whole library in its entirety at them, including the building. Good job.
My town library was ridiculously small. Not everyone has the same opportunities.
But we do used books anyway, they were usually the encyclopedia, the dictionary, and text books.
This tip probably isn’t useful to you today, but in many library systems you can request a book at your local library and they will deliver it to you from some other branch that has a copy of it
I think my small public library was donation-based. Very few interesting books there, and no way to browse for and request specific books. Maybe university libraries did that.
Glad to be of service!
Back in the very early 90’s I had a salesman from Britannica show up on my doorstep. I was amenable and ended up buying a set of encyclopedias. I loved them partially because I love books, but I also loved that I had all this information at the ready even if frozen in the time when they were printed.
Now we have the internet and it’s nice and all, but I wish I still had those books.
The Britannica was one of those essential things for every home. It was like having a home computer. It contained as complete a collection of human knowledge that was possible without a full-blown library.
I remember in the 90s looking through them trying to answer a random question I had and then later on going to the library to check out more research material if the Brittanica didn’t satisfy my curiosity.
As great as the internet is, I miss running a finger across the tomes to learn something new about the world.
We had a set of encyclopedias at home when I was a kid and also one called Childcraft that was written for kids. They were great. I spent a lot of time browsing and reading them.
I feel like every house I was in had a set of encyclopedias, and a copy of “The Way Things Work”. I’m kinda ashamed I have neither in my house today.
This thread is making me want to buy an encyclopedia set.
Just checked, $1,500-2,000 for the Encyclopedia Brittanica, no longer in print. Most recent edition is from 2010…
I guess I’ll just put wikipedia on an e-reader…
Your local library is free, and i would guess they have paper encyclopedias
I grew up in a household with the Encyclopedia Britannica (and some kind of a German version of it) and at some point I and my father would look who’s faster, me on my smartphone or he with his books. For newer tropics, he didn’t stand a chance.
Not quiet an encyclopedia, but as a child I really liked The Top 10 of Everything books.
This was late the late 90s, we had dial-up, but internet was still in its infancy.
I definitely had the 1999 and 1998 editions:
Microsoft Encarta was also mind-blowing for its time, especially if your were a child in the late 90s and early 2000s.
IIRC, they no longer print it, but you can probably buy used collections.
kagis
Yeah. The final print edition was 2010:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopædia_Britannica
Copyright (well, under US law, and I assume elsewhere) also doesn’t restrict actually making copies, but distributing those copies. If you want to print out a hard copy of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica website for your own use in the event of Armageddon, I imagine that there’s probably software that will let you do that.
Thanks, I do recall when they announced the last printing. Book collections can get cumbersome things to haul around in our lives and I have many already. If I ran across a more current set maybe I’d bite, but I won’t chase them down. I did already acquire the set of Great Books (classic literature and philosophy collection) that my father bought and dragged around. I’ve read some of the authors, but if I’m being honest I’d admit the 54 volumes are now mostly decorative in function and do look nice up on the shelf. I won’t get rid of them as I see their value, but that also means I have the opportunity to move them…again.