It’s a full set of 1984 Encyclopedia Brittanica, 30 volumes in all, and my wife kinda wants to throw them out. We could damn well use the shelves for other books, but the idea of trashing these things…
Problem is it seems like a sin to toss them. Nobody wants such old timey stuff. But they’ve graced our den from the time when they were brand new.
What to do?
Find an interior decorator who loves that kind of shit. 
Or build the best bonfire ever and invite your friends over for “an old-fashioned book-burning” 
I am sorry to say this, but you toss them. There isn’t a goodwill shop, or used book store that would take them from you. Encyclopedias have outlived their usefulness and are now populating landfills everywhere.
It pains me to throw away any book, but encyclopedias are an exception.
Recycle bin. They also make nifty targets.
You could rip out the pages and stick in blank sheets to create journals /scrapbooks/ photo albums with fun (and alphabetical) covers.
I’d probably never throw away a full set of high quality encyclopedias. Sure, some of the information isn’t updated but a lot of it is still very valuable. I mean, an encyclopedia is there to give rudimentary knowledge on a huge range of subjects. So articles on almost any historical event will never go out of date. Sure future discoveries may change some aspects of our understanding of the historical event but since encyclopedias tend to focus on the “overview” aspects they would still be useful in that context.
I’d keep them and try to pass them off to friends who have kids and may want them as an educational tool, and there’s lots of people who couldn’t afford the updated versions of encyclopedia sets as they tend to be pretty expensive.
You could use the pages to decoupage a room ( bathroom ) or wrap future presents. Recycle, man. Recycle.
Practice paper for origami.
I think I’ll take Martin Hyde’s advice and maybe try to find a home for them, but at some unspecified time in the distant future…
The truth is, I just can’t throw them away, or tear them up for gift wrapping, purse making or bathroom decorating. They are old friends.
Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions.
My Britannica’s date from 1929 (my granddad bought them from a traveling salesman, not a burglar, honestly!) – I used to enjoy reading them all through university, both because the entries on a lot of the mediaeval topics were still informative, and also as historical pieces themselves (entries on motion pictures, television, astronomy, &c).
I’m hoping to be able to have them at my own house someday, but right now there isn’t any room (my grandad didn’t just get the volumes, but they came with their own bookcase just like you would see free standing in a library.)
So who knows; hang on to your set for 75 years, and perhaps someone will be grateful to peruse it as a time-piece of knowledge as it stood by in the 1980s!
I’m going to keep my dad’s 1958 Britannicas forever.
I’ve got a full 1986 set, and they are really useful still when I want to look something up but can’t be bothered booting up the computer and logging onto the net - most of the historical/science stuff is still relevant. Plus there’s something cool feeling about looking up info in such a big book, which you never get from the net. I’m shifting to the UK in a couple of months, but my Encyclopaedia Britannica is going on the ‘not throwing out - store for future’ pile.
I have a 1991 set of the Britanicca, and they’re not going anywhere unless I get a new version. (If they’re still printing them when I’m ready.) I actually read them; I keep the current volume on the dining room table and if there is nothing better to read, I’ll browse for a while. Takes me about three years to get through from start to finish.
You may guess that my answer is: keep them.
Some people who live in rural or near-wilderness areas are known for taking in all manner of stray and unwanted critters. Well, if I ever become rich enough to afford a huge estate, I’ll build a large structure and dedicate it to housing your encyclopedias and other books, as well as magazines and other printed materials, that are too good to throw away but too inconvenient to keep. You’ll be able to visit the Brittanica volumes whenever you like, and other bibliophiles will be allowed to browse through the stacks – maybe even buy (or just keep) writings whose consigners aren’t as sentimental as are you.
In the meantime, consider asking around at local theaters (school or community playhouses) to see if any prop departments can use the books as potential components of stage sets.
In 1967 my parents aquired a 1950 set of World Book ecyclopedia. If I can credit the life-of-the-mind’s birth that’s enabled me to survive the alternate, shitty universe of my daily life, it would be the reading of that set.
Offhand, while the biogrpahy of hymn-composer Fannie Crosby, or women’s novelist Fannie Hurst, is lost to the modern age, as well as to all but the most arcane interned searches, there be both fannies splayed open to all on the pages of an archaic encyclopedia. What more could you ask?
I think it was Bertrand Russel who lamented “It’s a pity there’s so little useless information around these days.” I’ve grown to cherish a printed voice from the past that bekons me “here is something that is interesting to know and is utterly worthless,” which no houseful of love should be without.
You’ve waited for years to use their names like this, haven’t you? :dubious:
Hollow them out, & convert them into filing boxes for bills, or places to hide stuff.
A little spray epoxy for the pages, a moto-tool to cut, & bob’s your uncle!
Me either. I have some friends who don’t buy ANY reference books. Their daughter can always use at least SOME of the information in my old almanacs and encyclopedias. They’re good to someone. I say ask around. You could even put them at the bottom of your driveway on a nice day with a “free” sign on them. Someone can use them.
I’ll take 'em off your hands. Where are you at?
:: drools :: I’ve always wanted an old set of encyclopedia. I can hollow out some of the pages and hide stuff like cash, hidden treasure maps, and plans to my secret Death Star in them. . . I can rig one to my garage door that when I lean one volume forward, my garage door starts to open. . . Aw man, the uses are endless!
Tripler
Seriously though, I’ll take 'em if you’re fairly closeby. I’m in Montana.
cough…eBay…cough