Phillip James Glasgow

"... as I carefully pulled them out of the box one by one, I enjoyed feeling the weight of the information in my hands. It felt like stepping back onto dry land after a long boat ride. It's hard to put a name on that emotion."

I'm still grieving after having to recently to give away a 30 year old edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica due to space restrictions. With matching bookshelves it was a thing of beauty.

#encyclopedia
#worldbook

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2023/06/rejoice-its-2023-and-you-can-still-buy-a-22-volume-paper-encyclopedia/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

I just bought the only physical encyclopedia still in print, and I regret nothing

The still-updated World Book Encyclopedia is my antidote to the information apocalypse.

Ars Technica
Jun 11, 2023 at 11:41pmWeb
Show threadPhillip James GlasgowJun 11, 2023
But I'm with the authors wife not liking seeing a "big ass shark" on the spines everyday. Wouldn't the world largest animal, the blue whale, be more appropriate for a 22 volume set? Or maybe a #mammoth or a... #mastodon?
Show threadFardels BearJun 14, 2023

@MuddyMagee

I grew up with a set of the Encyclopædia Britannica from the 1950s, complete with matching bookcase. It had sliding glass doors which sometimes got stuck when you tried to open them. I loved sitting cross-legged in front of it, pulling out those heavy volumes and browsing a world of knowledge.

I was the only one who actually read them. For the most part, I think people bought them as social signifiers of having made it into the middle classes.

Show threadPhillip James GlasgowJun 14, 2023
@riggbeck They seemed an incredible price. By New Zealand standards they were only affordable to the well off. My mother bought a couple of sets of cheaper priced encyclopaedia that got used extensively by 3 kids. Wish I still had them! They were great. The set of EB I inherited came from an eccentric relative with no children. Bought it with his redundancy money!
(oh, the days of monthly subscriptions/purchases arriving in the mailbox. What a joy!)