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by F00Fbug 1111 days ago
My parents had Encyclopedia Britannica and I'm convinced that was a huge benefit to me that I'm still realizing today. I was born in 1965 and can remember even in elementary school any time I had a question my parents couldn't answer we'd look it up in the EB. Pretty soon I was habituated to just go there on my own and look up anything. When bored I'd pull out a random volume and just flip through it looking for anything that caught my eye.

I'm sure that was no small expense for my parents, but it really was an investment in us kids!

It's wonderful having access to all that and more on your phone, but there was something special about that long row of brown volumes. I was always excited when the annual supplement came; my brother and I would flip through it to see what new knowledge had been discovered!
2 comments
RandallBrown 1111 days ago
I grew up with World Book encyclopedias and it was very much the same. Until we got a computer. Encarta was the coolest thing I had ever used and I spent hours playing with the interactive encyclopedia. After that I hardly touched the printed books.
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alexsereno 1111 days ago
Encarta and Spy Fox were my childhood PC time haha
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pizzafeelsright 1111 days ago
Younger but very similar. Read A to S. I started T and went to college.

I think it cost about $2.5k.

What's odd is my parents never read it as they were illiterate.

I found most of the topics were very short. Going in depth was limited to the library books. Picking six books only to find them referencing themselves was annoying. Six books with 130% total page content between them.

I did learn how to read, skim, absorb content. I also discovered most people simply repeat information instead of using or validating.

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jstarfish 1111 days ago
> What's odd is my parents never read it as they were illiterate.

Not odd. If they're anything like my family, they would have bought it hoping it would help you escape the same fate.

> Younger but very similar. Read A to S. I started T and went to college.

The animal kingdom has long suffered from overfamiliarity with aardvarks and the existential denial of zebras ;)

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