# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/61 "2015-05-20T01:29:11Z")
I had my father’s set of World Books from the mid-sixties and had access to a mid-80s edition at school. I remember quite vividly how the mid-sixties book portrayed how we would get to the moon, land, and return, while the more recent set of books was obviously based on what actually happened. While clearly they cleaned it up and changed a few things along the way, I was surprised at how it basically was the exact same information, changed from a hypothetical to an actual event. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/62 "2015-05-20T03:51:23Z")
My family has a 1972 World Book set. We also have a mostly-complete 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/63 "2015-05-20T13:16:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Did you live in central NJ? > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > It was syndicated. When she was in grade school, and before we met, one of my high school friends was featured as a winner. That’s the column. It ran in a Massachusetts newspaper, where I grew up. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/64 "2015-05-20T13:27:26Z")
We had a set of encyclopedias when I was a kid. Mom got them at the supermarket. Later, she bought a set of Funk & Wagnalls animal encyclopedias from the same place. My brother has them now. I have a set of Encyclopedia Britannica (1964) that my cousin gave me, and there’s a set of kid’s encyclopedias downstairs that my husband got from his folks. ---
**Author:** ![Nefario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/59ef9b/32.png) [@Nefario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefario)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/65 "2015-05-20T13:35:13Z")
My mom taught with a lady who sold World Book Encyclopedia. We purchased a set in the late 60’s. We lived in an area where getting TV reception was hardly worth the $$ and hassle so we didn’t have a TV until I came home from college in 1978(?) I was a voracious reader. By the 4-5th grade I had literally read the encyclopedia and could go back and find sections I liked. I still remember the pictures in the candle-powered radio article. I think being exposed to the range of science, history, and culture described there set a course for my later life. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/66 "2015-05-20T14:22:17Z")
We owned a set of World Book Encyclopedia, circa 1960 (the year I was born). My grandparents had a Colliers set. I enjoyed them so much! I always wanted a Britannica set, as well, but we just never got around to ordering them… ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/67 "2015-05-20T14:41:29Z")
We didn’t have any of the famous sets, just a couple of single volume general knowledge encyclopaedias. But we did have a complete set of the _[Tell Me Why](http://auctionimages.s3.amazonaws.com/69145/47019/36864919.jpg)_ books, which were very useful in their own way. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/68 "2015-05-20T15:18:38Z")
I had the 1970 Encyclopaedia Britannica Jr. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/69 "2015-05-20T17:59:34Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > We didn’t have any of the famous sets, just a couple of single volume general knowledge encyclopaedias. But we did have a complete set of the _[Tell Me Why](http://auctionimages.s3.amazonaws.com/69145/47019/36864919.jpg)_ books, which were very useful in their own way. I loved the “Tell Me Why” books, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/70 "2015-05-20T18:16:27Z")
I just looked some of these up and found the names. > [@Colibri](#): > > My mother had a set of a children’s encyclopedia from 1940 which we unfortunately no longer had. [The Boy’s and Girl’s Encyclopedia: Britannica Jr.](http://www.amazon.com/The-Boys-Girls-Encyclopedia-Encyclopaedia/dp/B000QFTNIE) It must have been published in the middle of WWII since the article on it was titled “War in Europe 1939-”. > [@](#): > > In the 1960s I bought a children’s encyclopedia volume by volume that they sold at the A&P Supermarket. We also no longer have that. This must have been [_The Golden Book Encyclopedia_.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Book_Encyclopedia) ---
**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 20, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/71 "2015-05-20T19:08:45Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > 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. I was 11 at the time, but that was what my parents said. I believe it because they weren’t loaded with money at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/72 "2015-05-20T21:22:22Z")
My mother _still has_ a 1986 Encyclopedia Britannica set and update books up till 1998(?), I think. They were bought from a door to door encyclopedia salesman. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/73 "2015-05-20T21:30:25Z")
We had Americana when I was a kid. It must have been from the early 60s. Loved it. Used it for many a report all through elementary school. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/74 "2015-05-20T21:53:49Z")
We had a 1976 World Book. I was really interested in the planets and read the articles on all of them, and one entry confused the hell out of me. When you looked up “Mercury” it said that mercury was a silvery liquid metal derived from an ore called cinnabar. And that didn’t make any sense to me, I knew Mercury was a crater-covered rockball. But it was in the encyclopedia! I had to live with this nagging cognitive dissonance for a least a year or two until I figured out that there were actually three articles titled “Mercury”–the roman deity, the element, and the planet, and the one about the element was the first one. If I had thought to keep reading to the next page I would have seen the article on the planet. When I finally figured it out it was a huge relief. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/75 "2015-05-20T22:29:25Z")
My family was another World Book family, probably the 1979 or 1980 edition, and we got the annual Year Book until I graduated high school in 1992. It was my “job” each year when we got the Year Book to put the stickers for the updated entries in the original set. Eventually the set migrated to an extra bedroom next to the bathroom, which made for very convenient bathroom reading when needed. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338/76 "2015-05-20T22:36:44Z")
The set of _Encyclopedia Britannica_ and those _The Children’s Hour_ books that my mother owned were the only reliable friends I had as a child. To this day, I’d still rather read a new book than meet a new person. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-owned-an-encyclopedia-set/720338.md?page=3)