Encyclopaedia Britannica has decided to stop publishing its print edition after 244 years. The digital edition will continue, and the publisher is offering free access to the subscription service for the next week.
Saddened, surprised or not surprised, GalleyCat readers shared their favorite encyclopedia memories yesterday. What do you remember about reading those sturdy hardcover reference tools as a kid?
Christina Dudley fondly remembered the day she was “reading in a vintage World Book Encyclopedia that ‘no one knows if there is life on Mars.'” Joan Weiner Levin recalled: “Anyone remember the ‘frog’ entry in World Book Encyclopedia? Acetate overlays showed frog’s insides.”
Beth Bryant Sorensen: “There is something quite sad about this. I remember always borrowing my best friends because we could afford them. It was the best excuse ever to hang out at Stephanie’s house!”
Chris Roberts: “Graduating High School and throwing them out the window.”
Fran Friel “As a small child I found them stashed in an upstairs cabinet. Their covers looked like carved leather–I thought they were magical. I’d steal upstairs and sit in the near dark paging through, seeing places, people and things I’d never imagined. And they smelled so good…”
Bookin’ it! Your Mobile Bookstore: “Door to Door sales people and getting the new updates each year for our book case.”
Word Forge-Books: “My parents buying a whole set of Compton’s in the early 1970s, and paging through the biology section that had the coolest cutaway diagrams of the human body. Each system — nervous, respiratory, skeletal — on a separate clear plastic over…”