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In my day we made our own Internet at home.

And those Time Life books on esoteric subjects.

We also had the Childcraft series and the Annual yearbook.

I did!!! Good times! Good bathroom reading! 😂

We had the complete set at home, and we got their Yearbooks every year. Which was good; we needed the updates because our OG set was published in 1963. My favorite article was on dogs. They had color photos of a whole bunch of different dog breeds and I could fantasize about getting one someday.

YES at school. In the late 80s, we had a set of Funk & Wagnalls. The different volumes were sold each week at Safeway. Mom missed a week so we did not have H. I even took them to college. We have a set of World Books here at the library. It's fun to explain what they are to our wee patrons.

Nah, but various parts of an old ten-volume "world history". (Scare quotes because of its heavy focus on Europe.)

I miss those books! I still love them decades later.

Missed that one, but the Usborne Children's Encyclopedia was my favorite children's book, hands down

Encyclopaedia Britannica. Including the year books when my parents got them. 10yo me demanded my father teach me how to pronounce Eduard Shevardnadze because the name popped up so much.

Yes... And then Encyclopedia Britannica when my uncle was persuaded by a doorstep salesman to buy it in installments... So I only got a third of the way through the alphabet before he cancelled

For me it was the Book of Knowledge. My parents bought a used set, probably about 1958 (it was before I could read). Once I was home sick and I spent hours putting little tiny slips of paper to mark pages with cool photos or drawings. Loved the volcanoes. Those slips fell out for years.

We had an Encyclopedia Britannica bound in dark green stored in its own bookcase. It was placed in the hallway for the bedrooms and I would spend hours on the floor reading the various volumes.

Yep. That and MAD magazine. Explains a lot…

Yep. And the dictionary.

Colliers. The year books were a mildly big deal. Also, Time-Life books.

Encyclopedia Britannica was our in house center of learning.

Well, Funk & Wagnalls, but, yes.

Yes, of course. I read everything in the house and library!

Yes! 🤭

Yes. I still don't understand how people don't want to know everything.

Sure was. I also used to quiz myself with the cards from Trivial Pursuit games.

I had Britannica. I had long summer days when I was in the walkout basement where it was cool, reading the encyclopedia.

You bet!

I grew up with the 1957 edition. It was the closest thing to web surfing in the ‘60s

no we had the brittanica

...and the annual year books.

It was the 1975 Junior Encyclopaedia Britannica for me! My parents got it for me when I was 8 and I read all of it in just over 2 weeks as a challenge, even the 25th volume which was the index!

Bait and pandering and…lol yeah. It was better than the price is right and general hospital for hours at grandmas…

Max Rockatansky Says 'That's Bait' MemeAlt: Max Rockatansky Says 'That's Bait' Memestatic.klipy.com

We had several kid-oriented encyclopedias, including the Children’s Britannica, which my grandfather got as his payment for writing an article for the grownup Britannica.

When I wasn’t studying the atlas

Yeah. Do you have a problem with that?

Constantly. I can still picture the bookcase that held it.

Yes

I only had access at school but read it voraciously. Also every dictionary I could get my hands on (hence my childhood nickname).

Yep! Sometimes it was awkward. 😬 bsky.app/profile/urba...

covers to covers

The librarian at the St-Lambert Library on the South Shore of Montréal was my earliest mentor. I spent hours reading the encyclopedias, the dictionaries. Graduated to the Book of Lists, and Guinness Book of Records. I pored over National Geographic and Time Life which we did not have at home.

yup. that’s how i first learned English as a immigrant child

it was that or the bible, so... plus my Usborne encyclopedia had little guys all over it

We had a leather set of Brittanica from 1911 and I used to love looking at it and seeing how much had changed. We were missing a couple of volumes that the dog ate.

We started with the Golden Book Encyclopedia and worked our way up to the World book. Golden Book was the gateway drug.

Yes.

It me.

Heck yeah

My parents bought a set of The World Book encyclopedia in the mid-60s as an investment in their kids. I would just sit on the floor and read it. Now, getting an answer to a question without even getting out of bed feels like living in Star Trek.

Guilty! It was on a bookshelf right next to the recliner I’d usually sit in so I’d pull out a volume & start perusing. Still in my Mom’s living room.

I made my parents buy me old editions at the Goodwill, a volume at a time

Yes!!!

Ha ha I was but it was a knockoff made in Taiwan so the only thing changed was the China section.

Yup, and the annual updates.

my parents would only spring for an off-brand encyclopedia. i can't remember what it was called. but it was kept in my room and i read it on the regular for fun

In the UK, Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopaedia, Pears’ Cyclopaedia, and Whitaker’s Almanack. (I think those are correct 1960s spellings)

Absolutely. Boggled my siblings minds, but I found it fascinating, reading about things I'd never even imagined before.

yes! before I could read, my mom gave me old Brittanicas to play with.

Of course. Didn’t everyone?

Is it that obvious?

We had the old 1960 edition and I still love that graphic design style.

Not exactly that, but to this day I still remember the starting and ending point for each of the 26 volumes of an encyclopedia (Salvat, IIRC) my parents bought at a supermarket: a - alu alu - ari ari - bal bal - bov bov - car car - chi chi - con con - den den - eje eje - esp esp - fib fib - gei 👇🏻

Funk & Wagnall’s in our home

oh yes countless hours of the 1976 edition

You rang?

Yes. The World Book Encyclopedia was very interesting Feel sorry for todays kids, less reading opportunities at home, more go and watch tv and surf the internet.

Yep! The entire set circa 1972! The Britannica set came later around 1980 So much infirmation!!

But of course

Went into the media center during lunch regularly in 7th grade and made my way through the A volume.

Yes, but it was more of a Temu encyclopedia.

Even better, my 35 year old kid wants it next!

I would go to looks something up, get distracted by a different entry, then start looking up the “see also’s” at the end of that… then it’s an hour or two later, there are 5 volumes open on the floor, and I still haven’t read the thing I came to read first.

Yes, i was!

yes!

Yarp

You betcha. Because my parents put it in the bookcase right outside the children's bedrooms, extremely noticeable. Our house had a library, over-stuffed built-in bookshelves & a fireplace, & we all spent our time there, not in the living room.

Yup

1975 edition, but printed in late 1974, so they had an entry for Portuguese Guinea, noting it was about to become independent. (Didn't list the future name, though.) The lower corner of the S-Sn volume had been chewed by the dog but still quite usable.

Yes. And I couldn't trash them after that. ❤️

Of course

No, our family had the Encyclopedia Americana instead. But, yeah, I read that.

My mom bought Funk & Wagnall's, so I read that.

We had a mid-1960s World Book and a 1980ish Funk & Wagnalls. It was an embarrassment of riches.

Twice

The anatomy transparent overlays!! More fun than a museum!!!

Yep.

We had a set from the 1960s. Friend growing up had an encyclopedia set from the 1800s. You could open it up to a random page and it was all about racism and xenophobia. Even if you weren't in R or X.

Questions to ask people to determine whether they are librarians

I did, but I had to do it at the library. At home, we had a set of thin books called something like "Young Person's Science Encyclopedia". And we had McGraw-Hill's "Our Living World of Nature" books (The Life of the [Desert, Ocean, Forest, Marsh, etc.]) that I loved.

We kept it on a shelf in the bathroom. The whole family wound up reading it from A to Z.

we had a set from 1964 in our house. sucked when I tried to write a paper about the moon landing and jfk assassination out of them

Yup.

Yes.

The transparent human anatomy pages with the various systems were very cool.

We had a 1930s one, a 1960s teacher edition world book (white cover) and a 1950s britannica. The 1930s one was available for cutting out photos for reports.

The local historical org was discarding stuff when I was prob 14 and I picked up the 1879Library of Universal Knowledge set with 1 missing book. An American update of 1859 Chambers (UK). Lots of great,and awful, things inside. It was a not valuable curiosity I shed through a donation a while back.

They put a set in every classroom in my newly-built elementary school, so I’m pretty sure I read the whole set from 3rd to 5th grade.

Absolutely not! We were a Britannica family! (We had the regular and the children’s versions.)

Absolutely. I fainted from excitement the day it arrived.

Why yes! And they were World Book, not that Brittanica pish!

Yes, at age 10 I read every page starting with A up through the skinny D volume when I hit Dinosaur and got permanently sidetracked.

Yes! For fun but for knowledge and learning very random facts too. Also the Childcraft set, we were posh!

Yes. And I looked forward to the Yearbook each year.

Cover to cover in sixth grade! (after classwork was completed)

Certainly not! We were an Encyclopedia Americana household. (We did HAVE a World Book, but the Americana felt more grown-up, somehow.)

I read dictionaries for fun. Still do.

You bet!

No, Colliers.

Yes, and it’s all in a big storage bin waiting for some dusting and shelf space. It’s heavy AF.

Oh absolutely.

No, I read "The Book of Knowledge" for fun. Later in life, like 1970, I read the 11th edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica for fun. (That was the 1911 edition, where the article on radioactivity was signed by "E. Ru.")

Yes. But didn't necessarily have all the volumes as they were purchased from the grocery store and a couple volumes got missed. Went with my father every New Years Day to get a new World Almanac though.

A family friend donated a copy of The McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. I read *that* for fun as an 11+ year old child.

Worse: Funk & Wagnalls that we got, volume by volume, from the grocery.

No, but my Dad did read an encyclopedia for fun! "It's full of facts"

All the time!!!!!!!

Yes. We had two editions and it was quite interesting to see the differences . One was a contemporary edition and the other was pre-world war. Still have the old one and no idea what happened to the 70s edition.

I feel seen.

Yes. I did. I'd go the library and read them for hours. It was my favorite place as a kid.

... lying on the floor, grabbing the next volume whenever some interesting tidbit popped up -- pre-internet browser tabs open all at once

Did you have the fancy ones with the transparent maps? I thought those were great!!

No but I read the shit out of this

I used to love reading dictionaries, with which our household was amply provided, and quickly learned that two different editions of the same dictionary may not contain the same swearwords, which is a whole education in itself.

Yes, and the Golden Book Encyclopedia!

It was the only way I had of understanding the Doonesbury books I was getting at the used bookstore run by cats. It was a 1964 set so it only helped so much.

I got a set of Childcraft Books/Annuals, which I absorbed. This included volume 15, Guide for Parents, which was basically one long pediatric diagnosis guide. This is how I knew I'd come down with scarlet fever before my parents or doctor did. (And kicked off a lifetime of hypochondria.)

Unfair to ask this on Bluesky, imho.

We had Funk & Wagnalls, but yes. Also the dictionary.

Oh yes

The whole thing! 1979 edition.

I did! I would pick a volume and read it in bed. After lights-out I'd read it under the covers with a flashlight. It was a 1960s edition bound in maroon fake leather. I esp. remember poring over the articles about each letter of the alphabet, tracing its development from Greek and/or Phoenician

We had a full set of Americanas. My mom got bamboozled by a door to door salesman into buying them. And yes I read them all the time.

I read the Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery instead, as we did not have the world book  I still have my mother’s copy all 12 volumes

Brittanica all the time

Totally.... daily.... The Gustave Doré etchings in the included Bible terrified me.

Yup.

We were an Encyclopedia Britannica family, but yes

We had Funk & Wagnalls. Their science yearbooks were fun 😅

yes it was a second hand copy my mother bought at a rummage sale and i loved reading all of the totally outdated entries.

Collier's for my family, probably the 1962 edition. I particularly remember reading the entries for individual letters.

hellz yeah

I did. I even still have that huge-ass encyclopedia (it's perfect for pressing books mangled by Amazon delivery back into shape!)

Me.

Bicentennial edition. Loved the overlay transparencies for body systems.

Absolutely! Lost in different World!

My family and I still make great use of our (second) set of those books!

For me it was the dictionary and thesaurus!

Loved it! Also the World Almanac!

Here was my personal jam in Encyclopedias.

Who are the other children?

Yes. And the Dictionary. One new word a day. Using in 3 sentences each day...

Not me. We Had Britannica Junior.

Ya got me—that was me. But it was my daughter who taught me that you can reorder the volumes of the WORLD BOOK so that the spines spell out BLOOD WORK. I'm a proud father—

Totally. Started with the green bound set in the 70’s and upgraded to the brown ones later on…

Then as an adult I endeavored to read Will & Ariel Durant's 11-volume "The Story of Civilization," although I never got over being pissed that they seemed to think civilization ended with Napoleon until I realized they died.

I also read the dictionary

Yes! Even though it was a yard sale find, over 10 years out of date and missing Q-R. Had to get that info at school.

Our encyclopedia shelf was in a little hallway between our family room and bedrooms, which was a perfect reading nook for elementary-aged kids. My brother once got in trouble for testing our dad on the day’s World Book gleanings. Might have gotten away with it if he hadn’t told Dad he was correct!

It was my Wikipedia.

Yes and I still remember my favorite volumes: M ( mountains, mythology, Montenegro) and V (volcanoes, Venice, Vienna)

No, we only had a Brittanica

And we would constantly call the library to ask random questions that the librarian would always answer!

🤚

We had Britannica, but yes

Funk & Wagnalls, purchased a volume at a time at the supermarket

encarta on cd for me

bsky.app/profile/theh...

ABSOLUTELY! And anything else I could get my hands on

I had to read the Funk and Wagnalls set that my mom purchased a volume at a time from the grocery store. But yes.

The bookcase they were in was on the way from the living room to the bathroom. So, it was kind of "I'm going to take a dump and learn all about the letter L"

It was so great! Incidentally it's where I first read the word "tariff" in 1986, with little diagrams showing docks with ships with many or no containers. "Wut? I don't get it" I said. Still don't 😅

Yes! We had a set of The Book of Knowledge from the early 1900s. Pluto hadn't been discovered yet. Thank dog for the library.

bsky.app/profile/wesf...

Yes! And I loved getting the annual update volume.

We had both the 1935 and 1965 editions.

No, I'm straight outta Compton's.

1. This post did some numbers! 2. I did not consent to being called out in public like this.

Yep. In the 1960s. Also the annual Year Books they put out. The 1968 one had a great essay on popular music, "The Pop Music Scene," by Leonard Feather.

Yep!

That, and something called the Lincoln Library of Essential Information. It had two massive volumes and was essentially an abridged encyclopedia. A childhood staple.

I did :)

Absofraggingloutely!! All 5 of us read the entire set.

Well it was a page turner.

Absolutely.

My grandma had a Childcraft encyclopedia set and I read them so often I knew them by heart. I still have vague memories of some of the pages and wish I could get my hands on them again!

And at home my favorite: TIME-LIFE Foods of the World series. I still make its recipe for Czechoslovakian strawberry cookies every Christmas

Inside info on stuff my sibs didn't even know existed? Oh, man. Forget about it! Knowlege is power. Also: The Color Pictures smelled incredible.

I still crack a volume open for a peruse when I visit my folks.

Yup. Even if I was watching TV, during commercials I would look up things in the encyclopedia or dictionary.

I got a blank world map from my social studies teacher and colored in each country based on what kind of government they had which involved paging through the encyclopedia looking for the articles on countries but pausing frequently to read other interesting articles along the way.

My favorite computer game was Encarta.

With the gold-leaf page edges, of course.

One of my stepfather’s wedding gifts “to my mother” was the complete 1972 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. That is to say, it was really a gift for me, because they both knew I would sit and read it for hours and they never had to worry about what I might be doing. 😁

I smelled it (well, actually Collier's).

Over and over

The 'were' & 'a child' bit is kinda wrong tho......

We couldn't afford a set. I did it at the library.

Yup. At 10 or so, family vacation in the sticks, finished the big bag of books I’d brought. Crisis, brain imploding, kid freakout. Only books around were World Book set for sale at the one store (ag supplies & groceries) & Dad bought me 3 vols. we had full set at home but desperate straits. Thx Dad

Ours was Colliers, but yes, read all 23 volumes.