# Ever owned an encyclopedia set? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338 "2015-05-18T23:36:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/41 "2015-05-19T14:02:29Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I once won a World Book Encyclopedia set from the local newspaper “Cecil Adams,” called Ask Andy. My question was “What is the biggest insect in the world.” > > I got my photo in the paper, a huge deal for a ten year old. Did you live in central NJ? _Ask Andy_ was the name of the column that ran on the comics page in the New Brunswick-based _Daily Home News_. I don’t know any other paper that called its “ask me anything” column the _Ask Andy_. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/42 "2015-05-19T14:26:28Z")
I grew up with a set of the World Book Encyclopedia for children, 1950’s-1960’s. When we married, Madame Pepperwinkle gifted me a set of the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1978. Always enjoyed reading them, but the Internet (and Wikipedia) make the idea of a dead-tree version obsolete. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/43 "2015-05-19T14:40:08Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I have no doubt that my dad decided they needed to buy us the set because of “Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls” being a catch phrase on Laugh-In. _Laugh-In_ is always the first thing that comes to mind when Funk & Wagnalls is mentioned. Our parents got us the World Book set in 1960, when I was 6. My sisters and I used it a lot over the years. I enjoyed browsing in it. ---
**Author:** ![tonyfop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/85f322/32.png) [@tonyfop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonyfop)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/44 "2015-05-19T15:01:02Z")
We had a World Book from the 60’s, and “The New Book Of Knowledge” from the 70’s. My parents also paid to get the update to TNBOK that came out every year. They stopped that in the early 90’s, I believe. They still have both sets. Last time we visited, I showed my 13 year old son the books, and told him that when I was his age, this was Google. He gave me the “you are nuts” look that has been his favorite for the last couple years. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/45 "2015-05-19T15:06:47Z")
I have an Encyclopedia Britannica from the 1950s that my parents bought (probably in conjunction with the bookcase). I don’t look at it much since as P J O’Rourke wrote the 1911 edition is the only one you can 100% trust. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/46 "2015-05-19T15:33:26Z")
My Mom got me a set of used encyclopedias when I was in 1st grade, and I used them for years. Sometimes, I’d read them just for fun. Of course, a lot of what I learned from them was outdated by the time I got out of grade school. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/47 "2015-05-19T15:55:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > We also had a Golden Book encyclopedia , which they sold, one volume a week at the local supermarket. (We had the Golden Book Dictionary, too). Great for little kids. I had that set. My mom, when asked just about any sort of question would say, “look it up in your Golden Encyclopedia!” It really annoyed me when I knew damn well the answer wasn’t in there. Decades later we were browsing a used bookstore in Las Cruses, NM, and came across a set. She chirped, “look it up in your Golden Encyclopedia!” and I must confess to getting a bit pissed even after all these years. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/48 "2015-05-19T16:05:44Z")
My Grandmother sold World Books, too. We had the 1978 edition, and would get the Year Book and Science Year every year up until the mid-eighties. I used to devour them. That’s something I think my kids are missing. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/49 "2015-05-19T16:10:43Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Did you live in central NJ? > _Ask Andy_ was the name of the column that ran on the comics page in the New Brunswick-based _Daily Home News_. I don’t know any other paper that called its “ask me anything” column the _Ask Andy_. It was syndicated. When she was in grade school, and before we met, one of my high school friends was featured as a winner. ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/50 "2015-05-19T16:11:08Z")
We also had a (partial) set of grocery store encyclopedias. IIRC we had a separate (partial) set of Charlie Brown-themed encyclopedias, which I loved as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/51 "2015-05-19T16:25:59Z")
My parents also had a World Book set and ISTR a Golden Book set when very little. I enjoyed both, particularly World Book’s section on coal for some reason. When I was in high school, a set of dark green books about half the height of World Book was added to our library. No idea who put those out but I loved the maps in them. Very detailed considering how small they were, the one for Illinois even included the tiny little town where I grew up! Until then, I had only seen it on the state map in Illinois rest areas. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/52 "2015-05-19T16:36:54Z")
We had a set of World Books in the early 1960s. A friend or relative who was a teacher got them for us using the teacher’s discount. I read a few volumes, used it a lot, and proving my geekishness, invented hypertext by creating a list of the articles you reached when you started with the first reference (link) at the end of a randomly selected article and went from there. A very interesting exercise. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/53 "2015-05-19T19:18:58Z")
I had a set of junior encyclopedias (with a yellow color, so maybe it was an edition of the Golden Book) and the World Book of Knowledge that I inherited from my older brother. Later I got a one-volume HUGE World Book encyclopedia. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/54 "2015-05-19T19:37:53Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > When I was in high school, a set of dark green books about half the height of World Book was added to our library. No idea who put those out but I loved the maps in them. That may have been Webster’s Family Encyclopedia. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/55 "2015-05-19T22:16:57Z")
When my sister and I were kids, Mom sprung for the full Encyclopædia Britannica for us. The encyclopedia itself has since been passed on to a friend of the family that had a kid younger than us, but the Great Books collection that came with it is recognized by all three of us as all mine. I’m the only one who ever read any of them (including Euclid’s _Elements_, for fun). ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/56 "2015-05-20T00:25:21Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > We had a set of World Books in the early 1960s. A friend or relative who was a teacher got them for us using the teacher’s discount. I read a few volumes, used it a lot, and proving my geekishness, invented hypertext by creating a list of the articles you reached when you started with the first reference (link) at the end of a randomly selected article and went from there. A very interesting exercise. Was there, in fact, a teacher’s discount? If so, that probably explains how my parents were able to afford our set, and/or why they decided to get it, since my father was a high school social studies teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/57 "2015-05-20T00:39:35Z")
We have a set of World Book Encyclopedia from 1976 that I think my parents actually bought used in the mid-80s. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/58 "2015-05-20T00:51:40Z")
I bought a set of encyclopedia britannica’s from the 70’s in the 80’s for my kids for about 50 bucks. We referenced them almost every day at dinner when we talked about history and “stuff” At least one book was pulled out every night. Now we have Google. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/59 "2015-05-20T01:16:22Z")
The only encyclopedia I ever had I still have. It is a Compton’s ca. 1953. Mom would have liked to get the two-shelf Britannica, but we couldn’t afford it, so we got a one-shelf junior edition. It was the Internet/Wikipedia of my childhood. Dinosaurs aren’t birds, Pluto is the ninth planet, and swamps are being improved by draining them. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/60 "2015-05-20T01:20:02Z")
1959 World Book Encyclopedia. Read it cover to cover by the time I was 11. Yeah, I was that kid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338.md?page=4)