Ben by Daniel Shelton for March 11, 2022

Interesting definition. In some ways and encyclopedia is an instagram in that you can look up a world of information by just opening a volume. If you have the two-part Britanica set, set one gives quick, short information while set two gives much broader information. Love set one. It is a collection of short stories that are great to read before going to bed.

When I think of the way we used to look stuff up… I know if Google and Wikipedia had been available when I was in school I’d have gotten better grades.

Encyclopeadia Britannica was 22 volumes back in the 60s.

We never had to fact-check our encyclopedia.

shouldn’t he say like Wikipedia ?

The Internet is nice and all that, but when you are building a model, the encyclopedia is wonderful for holding things down – or up. FWIW, I still have my grandfather’s 1908 Book of Knowledge, which he received for his 10th birthday.

My parents gave me a 30vol Encyclopædia Brittanica the year before I entered high school. I read it a bit like I read online now… going from link to link (e.g. Johnny Appleseed to Urbana OH to Clancy Brown to Shawshank Redemption to…) but it was a LOT messier. (I’d sometimes have 10 volumes open at the same time.)

We had to walk 10 miles through the snow, uphill both ways, to the library.

They were wik-ed.

Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls!

finally gave up our set of Britannicas from the last century. No one ever read them. They were in pristine condition, well at least when I remembered to dust them they were.

I always want to know everything about everything. My favorite thing about the internet is being able to easily look anything up and read about it. Although, depending on what field they go into, my grandkids might never know the joys of the reference section of the library.

I loved going to the library. For school and for myself.