With the Internet, I can’t imagine that the idea of a set of hardbound encyclopedias would be appealing to anyone. For their cost, they’re not a very good value, just since there is so much information out there that it would take a million books to include everything - and the fact that Wikipedia, although it can be unreliable, is much more extensive than any paper encyclopedia could ever hope to be (containing pop-cultural references of even the most obscure sort.)
I could see someone wanting a set of encyclopedias now for the same reason that someone would want to buy a globe - it looks nice in a den or office and gives off an air of class and worldly sophistication. As far as obtaining information, it wouldn’t come close to the advantage that the Internet contains (if you’re willing to be skeptical and sort through the bullshit.)
Does anyone purchase sets of World Book or Britannica encyclopedias anymore, or have they gone the way of the dodo?
They still sell plenty of them, though not as much as they used to. Both Britannica and World Book have CD-ROM and internet versions as well. Often you can get those for free if you buy the dead tree version.
I got my Britannica about five years ago and they still send me the annual update books. Say what you will about Wikipedia, you can’t read it on the john. (Unless you have a laptop, I guess.)
You can browse an encyclopedia volume at random while lying in bed a lot easier than you can the Internet. And read it at the breakfast table. Ah, I have such childhood memories. . .
Very good points. I also believe that it’s a good thing for a kid to grow up with loads of books of all kinds at home. For some reason, most kids just enjoy books, and enjoy finding out stuff in books – it really is an unbeatable format; and don’t forget Norman Mailer’s words: “Internet is the greatest waste of time since masturbation was invented.”
Glad to learn from these posts that they are still being sold. Many years ago when we were first starting out, and very poor, a Britannica salesman came to the door. I’d always coveted a set of these, so we haggled a while, but the cost was way too much.
Finally, he asked if I were a school teacher, and before I could reply, quickly added that there was a substantial educational discount. So, I said I was and got it for a huge discount. on a monthly payment plan.
Every day read articles in one of the volumes, and kept and loved it for years before giving it to one of my kids.
My favorite was a set of 5 volumes I bought at an auction as a kid for 25 cents. It was published in 1912, as I recall. I went to look up “airplane,” but it was not listed, but finally found an article under “flying machines!”
I got my Brittanica set (micro and macro) at the used book store for about $50.00. Everyone if the family looks in them for fun and, of course, the kids use them for school projects. They use the 'net, too, but there’s nothing quite like flipping around in a big, fat, book.
In spite of the many advantages brought about by the Borgesian Book of Sands(*)-like qualities of the Web, there’s something to be said about holding in your hand a piece of cellulose pulp where you can look stuff up in the absence of electricity or a communications link.
(*as many pages before the one you are on as after it, regardless of where you open it)
Maybe it would sense to you guys if you knew that I am suspected (but not quite positive by a recent doctor) of being high-functioning autistic and am supposed to be physically incapable of realizing any of this; learning it through logical deduction, yes, but really understanding it, no.
In the same way that a person with OCD is not actually a neat-freak, but is completely incapable of truly understanding what organizing things is and must either live in total chaos, or in an infinitely tightly wound world where everything is organized in every possible way because although you can sort of figure out organizing, you can never “get it”. It is exactly like that Monk detective. It is not that he is a great detective, but he is so incapable of filtering out the important information that he has had to tediously and mind-numbingly go over every meaningless detail no matter how silly or unrelated it was until he could consciously and logically determine if it was pointless. The minor benefit of this is that although he is forced to go over everything, he does not miss much.
It is not so much that I “like to think about things”, but that it never payed off in the way it was supposed to before.
How ecstatic would you feel, how increadible would it seem if you were able to just see things instead of conciously going over every pixel of vision and calculating from there like a computer?
But wouldn’t the online version of the World Book be just as relaible as the printed version? In fact more so because the online data is updated regularly.
And at $49.95 per year it must be a lot cheaper than buying the books.
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