[cagey]

Ditto! In perhaps 1974 my parents acquired a used recent-edition (1972?) World Book encyclopedia set for my sister and I to leverage in our pre-college studies, and until perhaps 1980 that was by far my most-read (set of) books. I fondly remember the pseudo-topographic colored state maps with their geographic-region delineations and associated region descriptions. I think this was how I developed my (apparently relatively atypical) affinity for consuming reference manuals.