Encyclopedias everywhere--or at least it would seem. When I was about 9 years old my mother bought our first set of encyclopedias book by book from the grocery store. Over subsequent years she would purchase some newer sets. These encyclopedias helped get me through school as I would use them regularly to research reports and term papers. Then, at other times, our encyclopedias provided me and my friends hours of entertainment as we just perused the pages and read about things that caught our attention. A household without encyclopedias is somewhat literarily empty in my eyes.
Encyclopedias
As soon as you step foot in our home, one of the first things you would encounter is a shelf filled with encyclopedias. My wife's late husband was a professor and author in Ecuador and he liked having an extensive library for his research and entertainment. He had good taste in books. The encyclopedias he chose are decent representations of what was on the market when he purchased them.
On the top shelf is a 1986 printing of the mainstay of many homes: The Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia. This was the line that my mother purchased twice in far earlier editions than we have now. Those have since been discarded. It's a simple set, but it works for general information and reasonable for young people's school research.
The next two shelves have 1990's printings of Encyclopedia Britannica and Hispanica (the Spanish language product put out by the Britannica company). There are excellent in depth articles to be found in these and I refer to the English version with some regularity. Sure, some of the info gets outdated, but there is still solid information that answers questions that I might have.
Taking a look upstairs in our home you will find a few other encyclopedia sets, including one for young readers. Also there are a number of single books that are identified as "Encyclopedias" either of general knowledge or specific fields of study. Pictured below is one such book that I ordered from a book club maybe 20 or so years ago. Like other books of a similar nature, I rarely or never refer to these books but I like the way they look on my shelf.
Eye Mind by Paul Drummond
This is the book I have been currently reading and it's turning out to be one of my favorite books of recent years. This might be no surprise when you consider that this book is about one of my favorite rock groups--The 13th Floor Elevators, their most famous member--Roky Erickson, and the psychedelic era of the later 1960s. Looking at the current Amazon pricing I am apparently not alone in my passion for this book. I better keep this one in good condition as it seems to have some value. So far I give this book a big recommendation for anyone who is interested in Rock and Roll music history or the psychedelic era. Five stars!
Do you own any encyclopedias? Do you find encyclopedias to be useful? Do you keep any books on your shelves just because you think they look good?
I don't own any encyclopedias any more. In my childhood, my parents initially got me encyclopedias from the supermarket - thinking maybe Golden Book (?) not sure. At some point they got sold on World Book and got me the set with the cheapest binding (certainly not the white and gold binding). I was one of those kids who would read the World Book just for fun. In a way, I miss those days.
ReplyDeleteAlana, Funk & Wagnalls was the mainstay grocery store promotion encyclopedia set when I was young. Over the years my mother bought two different sets of them. They were a good value considering what one paid for them. We never had the upper scale encyclopedia sets that cost maybe a thousand dollars or whatever it was. I loved reading the encyclopedia for fun and recreation as well as to learn new things.
DeleteLee
Funk and Wagnalls was our choice...
ReplyDeleteBeth, ours too. It's a pretty good set for the price.
DeleteLee
Jamie (jannghi.blogspot.com):
ReplyDeleteI totally guessed encyclopedias for today. And it's one of my topics for today as well.
Almost gave up looking for it, but I do have one Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary. Does that count? I think all my books look good on the shelf ;-) I treasure the many writing books I've collected over the years - especially Elements of Style.
ReplyDeleteI grew up sitting on the floor reading my parents' encyclopedias, but sadly I don't have any now. I can't justify the space they take up. A neighbour was giving away an old set a few days ago and we ALMOST took it before we looked at our bookcases and determined we would need to get another one in order to fit it. :-P
ReplyDeleteE is for Edge Highlighting
Ours was Funk and Wagnalls
ReplyDeleteLuckily my sister got the encyclopedia set.
ReplyDeleteUnluckily I did buy the 7 Eves book ( closest thing I have to an E book, except for my E-book) and I still haven't finished reading it.
I still remember the letter-ranges to my old Colliers set from the 1950's- A- And, Ane-Bak, etc. I remember color plates of the singing of the Japanese surrender, that somehow convinced pre-school me that WWII ended in like 1964...
ReplyDeleteLee, have you ever seen any of "The Librarian" movies or TV show? As we agreed, I have to look at the books on the shelves. For the props, there are always tons of Encyclopedias used for fillers. They try to spread them out, but they are SO easy to spot. ZD
ReplyDeleteZD, several years ago I advertised a set of nice looking Spanish encyclopedias on Craigslist. I was impressed that I immediately got a buyer who accepted the $100 price I was asking without any negotiation. Out of curiosity, when the people came to pick up the set I asked why they wanted them. They said they were filming a movie where they needed books to fill up the shelves of a "doctor's office" on the set.
DeleteLee
Very Cool Story!!!!
DeleteI have my parents’ set of Encyclopedia Brittanica. I also have the extras where it discusses what happened each year including obituaries which I like reading. I like just going to one of the books, opening up a page and reading whatever I opened up on. I think they are excellent and I love that some of the countries have changed since this was published.
ReplyDeleteUghh…again, it’s Birgit. I bought a new IPad and have tried to sign in and it just won’t let me. I tried to troubleshoot etc…nothing,
DeleteMy father gave me the Children's Encyclopedia Britannica as a gift when I was 5-6. I still have the books for sentimental reasons but the set's back home in India on the shelf. For reference needs I use the online version.
ReplyDeleteWe had a number of encyclopaedia sets in my home growing up: Encyclopaedia Britannica both adult and childrens versions, plus some historical ones. We were constantly looking things up in them. But now the internet has replaced them all for general research and I've only kept a couple sets from the nineteenth century for historical purposes.
ReplyDeletenydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2023/04/england-atozchallenge.html