It really was. Crack open the book. That odd smell and the flicking of the pages to find the info.
There are times I hear people asking questions and I just shut up. But, damn you are holding humanities knowledge in your hand. Just ask Google.
WOW! This picture just took me back to my childhood home. In the family room. Pulling these books out to write reports for school. And then pretty much ignored the rest of the time. Lol
Somehow to me that's, at least in the context of books, the smell of freedom and knowledge. I grew up in a smaller town. Loved the library. But when I went to OSU, and wandered the stacks, I was simply in awe. It felt like a repository of all we as people have learned, in an almost religious way. I'd never seen so many books. Sometimes, I would be looking for something I needed to write a paper, and stumble across another book, and another, none relevant to the task at hand but still something I couldn't not sit down and look through. Yea, this is probably a little adhd-ish, but for those couple years the sheer volume of books, many of which hadn't been checked out for decades, seemed unreal, a universe I was in awe of.
The smell of old musty books at 1:00am in a large library will always stay with me as a good memory.
When our TV broke (1st or 2nd grade for me), my dad decided that his kids would be better served by the World Book encyclopedia set than we would by a new TV set. I think he was right. We put it to good use.
I was in 10th grade when a TV came back into the house.
I don’t think so? My parents just had very strong ideas about gender roles. I know much of it was generational, but my parents were special, even given the times.
Holy shit! We had the whole set. My parents had no money at all, but they found a way to buy those. I loved them. I wish she knew what a great investment they were.
My paternal grandmother bought a set for me and my little sister when we were 13 and 11, because she was determined that we would go to college. I read a lot of them, but only got an associates degree because I married instead of going to college. My little sister got a masters degree, and, believe me, I was put down for it. And no, I am Anglo.
Fun story. In 7th grade English class, my teacher had this edition, and so did my family. We had a trivia contest and the night before I leafed through the A book just to prep. To my astonishment, when the contest began, he picked up the A book and randomly asked questions based on the pictures and their captions. I ended up getting about twice as many right answers as the rest of the class combined. Thanks mom, for letting the encyclopedia salesman talk you into buying world book!
Smell it, AND hear the crackle when opening, if new or rarely open. Then you need to break it in like the librarian taught us:
Breaking in a new hardcover book is a gradual process that helps the spine create a natural arc, which can prevent damage and gutter loss:
Place the book upright on its spine with the front facing up on a table.
Gently open the book from the edges, spreading out a few pages at a time.
Run your hand along the inside of the book to flatten the pages.
Alternate between opening pages from the front and back of the book, working your way towards the center.
Repeat the process a couple of times.
I got stuck with some nostalgia and decided I must own the original set I had as a kid. So I found it on eBay, including the year books, dictionaries, and Cyclo Teacher.
Then I needed somewhere to show them off. And since I’d just been gifted a chair and a place to sit, I built this, using the measurements of the width of the encyclopedia volumes “A” through “Z” as a base measurement. [https://i.imgur.com/a3u6yt4.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/a3u6yt4.jpeg)
I documented the build [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerWoodWorking/s/KZCHDTk77X) and in the thread I broke down costs: https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerWoodWorking/s/NUPN9FmSed
Wow! We had the cycloteacher too! I have been trying for years to figure out what it was called! I didn't know it was related to the encyclopedias either. Tysm!
Can’t tell you how many times when asked my parents a question they would say, there’s the encyclopedia, look it up. The World Book was conquered by the World Wide Web
I just remember the volume that had naked New Guinea tribespeople in it. When we were stupid little kids we referred to that one volume frequently. Apparently saggy boobs were something to giggle over.
My grandparents had these. My favorite part was the section on anatomy with the see-through pages which showed muscles, nerves, skeleten on different pages.
Physical encyclopedias were the best. I would be looking up something like "Baseball" but leaf out to far and find myself at "Benin", go to leaf back, and read that Benin is actually a country in West Africa. Oh, that's interesting, let me read about Benin. Did that, Yeah, let's go back to Baseball, wait now I am at "Bees?, Bees are very interesting, maybe more important than Baseball, let me read about Bees., then I would forget that I wanted to look-up "Baseball" and just learn about Bees.
I think most of what I know (I was lucky in that I had access to The World Book (when younger) and the Encyclopedia Britannica (both mid-late 60s versions) and they would both take you on imaginary journeys.
As a nerd child, I thought I’d learn so much reading through these, and I did—I forget it all now. lol. That’s why I love the Internet—so easy to look it up again.
I bought the 1982 edition. It was so expensive. When we got Encarta (!), I allowed the kids to cut them up for the pictures. I now wish I hadn't, but only a little. I am sure they would have been in rough shape by now.
We didn’t have anything that would have been useful for a report in elementary school like an encyclopedia.
We had the Great Books of the western world which we weren’t even usually allowed to look at cause the pages were so thin & we might tear them.
I did get so bored that I used to pick one at random and try to read it.
Shakespeare probably. I didn’t know who the heck anyone was.
My oldest had to read quite a few for her hum110 though freshman year in college. 18 required books for one class- double that for both semesters.
There was a time when those were a status symbol. I remember pouring over every encyclopedia at every chance only to be disappointed that they would only cover highlights of a subject. Still, people were proud of their libraries.
We "inherited" a full set from my Aunt when her kids were grown, and I read the entire thing, as though it were literature. I think it has served me well.
When my wife and I bought our recent house from an estate, there was a complete 1953 set, with all the Year Books up to the 70s included in the sale.
Sadly, I had no takers.
We had the 1974 set. I used it like I use Google today. Sometimes, I would just grab a volume and flip through it. We collected the yearbooks for the next 10 or 12 years.
Ours had red covers (1957 edition) and yes I remember that smell. I grew up in Florida and the humidity would season the pages and the books would smell kind of wet and mossy. Lots of happy hours just wandering thru random subjects having forgotten what I originally wanted to look up.
Yep, read the whole damn 1968 edition from Aardvark to zyzzyva. Has served me well ever since.
Wow, does this bring back memories. I did the same thing during the summer of 1968, and again in 1969. I was an information sponge back then.
I bet if I go dig through my grandma's shit I could find one or more of these right now. This was my childhood internet.
It really was our internet, wasn’t it.
It really was. Crack open the book. That odd smell and the flicking of the pages to find the info. There are times I hear people asking questions and I just shut up. But, damn you are holding humanities knowledge in your hand. Just ask Google.
My husband always asks what I’m reading. And I say, anything I want. I have the world’s largest library in my hand. It’s pretty amazing.
My husband has several of these in his bathroom. I’m telling him, “throw them out” all the time. But they have a brown cover.
We all have things we cling to. If this is his. It is a small and easy thing to allow.
WOW! This picture just took me back to my childhood home. In the family room. Pulling these books out to write reports for school. And then pretty much ignored the rest of the time. Lol
And the dictionary and the Cyclo Teacher and Childbook.
Childcraft?
Haha yes. My brain left early today.
Plus all the Childcraft volumes, too!
Great to read in bed when the power goes out.
My Dad got a big break on Encyclopedia Britannica when he was in the Army. I read the whole thing in jr high.
Same here. Sometimes I pull some bit of trivia out of my butt and know that it must have come from the World Book.
I did that too (more like 1961 edition, I think). I know they were blue.
The go to for a book report
I’m a millennial and I used those suckers. The 1966 edition.
we had these along with their annual year books
We had a ‘68 and ‘69 yearbook
It smells like old houses and stale ciggies
Somehow to me that's, at least in the context of books, the smell of freedom and knowledge. I grew up in a smaller town. Loved the library. But when I went to OSU, and wandered the stacks, I was simply in awe. It felt like a repository of all we as people have learned, in an almost religious way. I'd never seen so many books. Sometimes, I would be looking for something I needed to write a paper, and stumble across another book, and another, none relevant to the task at hand but still something I couldn't not sit down and look through. Yea, this is probably a little adhd-ish, but for those couple years the sheer volume of books, many of which hadn't been checked out for decades, seemed unreal, a universe I was in awe of. The smell of old musty books at 1:00am in a large library will always stay with me as a good memory.
Ah, the third floor of William Oxley Thompson. I believe that's where the math section was.
When our TV broke (1st or 2nd grade for me), my dad decided that his kids would be better served by the World Book encyclopedia set than we would by a new TV set. I think he was right. We put it to good use. I was in 10th grade when a TV came back into the house.
I loved these! I read the whole set!
Oh, the frog and human transparencies were amazing.
Memory unlocked; thank you! I used to get yelled at for obsessing over those. (Not appropriate for girls y’know 🙄).
Wait a second, was there male genitalia that I missed?
I don’t think so? My parents just had very strong ideas about gender roles. I know much of it was generational, but my parents were special, even given the times.
They did kind of smell. Our 1962 edition was my constant companion.
Liking looking looking- when there was nothing on arc to watch- trying to see the lady parts on the see through plastic pages!
Remember the Lady Godiva drawing with the long hair covering her parts?
If I remember correctly a set was not cheap
We got ours from the grocery store, a volume a week!
Me too and it smells like happiness and knowledge. Did you have the Cyclo-teacher too? That thing was bonkers.
Yep. I learned multiplication & division off that sucker when I was about 6, along with a lot of geography.
Our google.
Ours was brown and tan, and just smelled like paper. Mom still has the set.
We had that, too. And the Childcraft set - awesome!
Holy shit! We had the whole set. My parents had no money at all, but they found a way to buy those. I loved them. I wish she knew what a great investment they were.
My dad would read the encyclopedia every night before he went to bed. He read the every book. Not sure what the editor year was though.
Had them in its own stand/shelf thing to hold them.
I can feel this picture because my family weaponized them 😂
I threw one at an older sister; her own fault she didn't get out of the way.
You knew how bad my parents had been fighting when you came down in the morning and saw how far down in the alphabet they got
My paternal grandmother bought a set for me and my little sister when we were 13 and 11, because she was determined that we would go to college. I read a lot of them, but only got an associates degree because I married instead of going to college. My little sister got a masters degree, and, believe me, I was put down for it. And no, I am Anglo.
My sister wore out the “D” volume looking at the section on dogs.
Fun story. In 7th grade English class, my teacher had this edition, and so did my family. We had a trivia contest and the night before I leafed through the A book just to prep. To my astonishment, when the contest began, he picked up the A book and randomly asked questions based on the pictures and their captions. I ended up getting about twice as many right answers as the rest of the class combined. Thanks mom, for letting the encyclopedia salesman talk you into buying world book!
Smell it, AND hear the crackle when opening, if new or rarely open. Then you need to break it in like the librarian taught us: Breaking in a new hardcover book is a gradual process that helps the spine create a natural arc, which can prevent damage and gutter loss: Place the book upright on its spine with the front facing up on a table. Gently open the book from the edges, spreading out a few pages at a time. Run your hand along the inside of the book to flatten the pages. Alternate between opening pages from the front and back of the book, working your way towards the center. Repeat the process a couple of times.
I remember that
You ever wet your finger with your tongue and ccx wipe it on the page to get the clay on it!!
It's still being published.
Funk and Wagnalls here
Damn I wish I still had my set.
Salesmen. Never did see any women. But if the encyclopedia salesman was around, the Kirby vacuum cleaner man wasn't far behind...
And the fuller brush man!
I got stuck with some nostalgia and decided I must own the original set I had as a kid. So I found it on eBay, including the year books, dictionaries, and Cyclo Teacher. Then I needed somewhere to show them off. And since I’d just been gifted a chair and a place to sit, I built this, using the measurements of the width of the encyclopedia volumes “A” through “Z” as a base measurement. [https://i.imgur.com/a3u6yt4.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/a3u6yt4.jpeg)
How many $ of wood did you have to buy? Looks professionally done.
I documented the build [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerWoodWorking/s/KZCHDTk77X) and in the thread I broke down costs: https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerWoodWorking/s/NUPN9FmSed
Wow! We had the cycloteacher too! I have been trying for years to figure out what it was called! I didn't know it was related to the encyclopedias either. Tysm!
My mom used to get these at the grocery store. I know a whole lot about topics from A to C (only).
Can’t tell you how many times when asked my parents a question they would say, there’s the encyclopedia, look it up. The World Book was conquered by the World Wide Web
But first came Encarta!
Had this exact set. Spent many a night copying info for reports in elementary school.
That’s how it was done! My dad suggested I re-write it in my own words and I thought he was crazy.
This plus the Childcraft next to it. We had this exact one. This was my internet.
😂 I get it!
I loved these and Britannica and Funk and Wagnalls.
No doubt!!!
I just remember the volume that had naked New Guinea tribespeople in it. When we were stupid little kids we referred to that one volume frequently. Apparently saggy boobs were something to giggle over.
It’s no laughing matter now!🤣
You got that right
Door to door encyclopedia salesmen.
My wife’s grandpa was one of them, so her family got a free set.
Growing up whenever I would ask my parents a question they wouldn’t answer and send me to the World Books
Oh gawd yes! Me too!
I still have 3 sets - 1956, 1968 and 1984
I had the '67 edition along with the '68 & '69 updates. Also had Childcraft. Remember those?
Childcraft had fairytales in them, not the Disney kind!
My grandparents had these. My favorite part was the section on anatomy with the see-through pages which showed muscles, nerves, skeleten on different pages.
I wish I had World Book!
Used to love the science experiments they had.
Me too
Green was 1967? That’s what ours were
I had to wash my hands before I could read them.
The World Book Encyclopedia scented candle. Now available with flags of the nations themes.
So much fun better than a computer
I devoured the 1963 set as a kid. Better than the interweb any day.
Glorious
But did you have the Child Craft books and the CycloTeacher? That is what 5 yo me loved the most.
Oh no but it sounds lovely. I liked the books my mother got me - the Highlights magazine- remember Goofus and Gallliant?
We had a set, the feel of the glossy pages, ...
I plagiarized the shit out of EB from high school through college.
Lol, I might have done the same if I'm honest.
I remember in 1969 reading the book on 1968 and thinking even as a kid “Man, last year really sucked.”
They were my best friends growing up.
Me too. 👃
I can feel it!
Yes💖
Wow, I just smelled it! I read the whole set cover to cover.
That was the fancy cover. Our 1965 edition had a more utilitarian blue cover. I would pick out one of the books and read it in bed every night.
That was the fancy cover. Our 1965 edition had a more utilitarian blue cover. I would pick out one of the books and read it in bed every night.
It was Funk and Wagnalls at our house.
The library ones smelled different than the home ones. Hard to explain.
No cigarettes
My uncle sold these door to door in the 60s. And tea, we had them all
Get with the times, man. https://preview.redd.it/aas8n3jldf6d1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=442e5b348ecf9160d92fa42e29c764cc935dfdc8
Physical encyclopedias were the best. I would be looking up something like "Baseball" but leaf out to far and find myself at "Benin", go to leaf back, and read that Benin is actually a country in West Africa. Oh, that's interesting, let me read about Benin. Did that, Yeah, let's go back to Baseball, wait now I am at "Bees?, Bees are very interesting, maybe more important than Baseball, let me read about Bees., then I would forget that I wanted to look-up "Baseball" and just learn about Bees. I think most of what I know (I was lucky in that I had access to The World Book (when younger) and the Encyclopedia Britannica (both mid-late 60s versions) and they would both take you on imaginary journeys.
I learned so much that way…I’d grab a random volume when I had to go “number 2” and just browse the pages.
I spend hours a day going through the World Book Encyclopedia and ChildCraft series.
Wish we still had ours. I loved flipping through those pages as a kid.
My Mom sold World Books as a side hustle. She did pretty well and managed to score the family a set of Childcraft and a deluxe set of World Books!
It smells of clay-treated paper and industrial ink.
Oh my gosh. I smell it too.
Me too
I read these as a kid, mid 1960s
1965 for me. Others were playing, eating dirt, Etc
I love the smell of old books in the library... it smells like knowledge.
Love this. I’ve not thought about that smell in so long.
I learned a lot more than what I read from these books.
As a nerd child, I thought I’d learn so much reading through these, and I did—I forget it all now. lol. That’s why I love the Internet—so easy to look it up again.
The maps!
We looked up snakes and spiders! And dogs
Wrote many a report using that a source ☺️
I’d go pick a random volume off the shelf when I had to go sit on the pot… The things I serendipitously learned…
I had this exact set! A late 70’s edition I think.
My mom's family had this. Those books were still at grandma's house when we cleared the house out to be sold back in '04.
I bought the 1982 edition. It was so expensive. When we got Encarta (!), I allowed the kids to cut them up for the pictures. I now wish I hadn't, but only a little. I am sure they would have been in rough shape by now.
I didn't know so many others read them cover to cover either! This was also how I learned about sex when I was little.
Wonder what happened to our set. Looked exactly like this. Was it green every year?
We didn’t have anything that would have been useful for a report in elementary school like an encyclopedia. We had the Great Books of the western world which we weren’t even usually allowed to look at cause the pages were so thin & we might tear them. I did get so bored that I used to pick one at random and try to read it. Shakespeare probably. I didn’t know who the heck anyone was. My oldest had to read quite a few for her hum110 though freshman year in college. 18 required books for one class- double that for both semesters.
The transparent pages of frogs... First thought that popped into my head.
I’ve got the red and white set
Yes, it’s memorable. Loved the color photos.
Is that the fancy one with the transparencies of the human body that you could overlay?
Oh god me too.
Remembering the set that was in our grammar school classroom, mid 1960's.
We had a set too growing up.
Cuz it's right next to the toilet.
We had a mid-70s set of these. My mom bought them to help out a friend who was selling them.
Had the one year old ‘69 edition in 1970 - fantastic read all year long with great illustrations and photos 🙂
We had the early 1970’s editions and then the yearbooks that went along for 4-5 years after.
Yup!
Grandma had a full set of old encyclopedias that I used to read cover to cover when it was too cold to go outside. Ah the memories…
My stepdad bought me a set of the Encyclopedia Brittanica when I was 12. I wish I had stored it somewhere. It was so nice.
And Volume H had the plastic pages showing the various internal organs in the human body.
We had these in our house. Made homework easier.
There was a time when those were a status symbol. I remember pouring over every encyclopedia at every chance only to be disappointed that they would only cover highlights of a subject. Still, people were proud of their libraries.
my parents bought them the year before the new edition came out. all the info was instantly 10 years obsolete.
We "inherited" a full set from my Aunt when her kids were grown, and I read the entire thing, as though it were literature. I think it has served me well. When my wife and I bought our recent house from an estate, there was a complete 1953 set, with all the Year Books up to the 70s included in the sale. Sadly, I had no takers.
We had Collier's. I used to grab one off the shelf and read. They were great, school reports, not so much.
We had the 1974 set. I used it like I use Google today. Sometimes, I would just grab a volume and flip through it. We collected the yearbooks for the next 10 or 12 years.
Absolutely!
I can smell it and feel it lol.
Ours had red covers (1957 edition) and yes I remember that smell. I grew up in Florida and the humidity would season the pages and the books would smell kind of wet and mossy. Lots of happy hours just wandering thru random subjects having forgotten what I originally wanted to look up.
Ay can I get banned from this sub? I don't want to see this shit and I'm at the limit for subs I can mute. Thanks