Beliavsky <beliavsky@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>When I was a kid about 30 years ago my parents bought for me the World
>Book set of encyclopedias. It was fairly common for the families we
>knew. I used to just browse volumes of the encyclopedia sometimes.
>What do people think now about making such an investment, where there
>are alternatives such as Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias (for
>a fee).
>
>Steve Sailer wrote an essay comparing Wikipedia and Brittanica
>http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/07/real-problem-with-wikipedia.html
,
>asserting the former is dull.
My mother gave us a set of encyclopedias c 1975 when we moved here. My
dh built a book stand for them plus the three volume dictionary. She
had a Britannica in her house including all the updates. I also had a
couple of children's sets (such as questions about science which I
think I gave to my son when his children had no internet access), and
also she gave me a bookcase of 'great books' which I sent out of
Dallas when dd#3 moved out there. She wanted the bookcase, so she got
the books in it too.
No one is interested in buying such things anymore as the regular
encyclopedias go out of date really fast on some topics (political and
geographical mostly). But really, there's a bunch of stuff that is
still perfectly good.
I think you can get such a set (out of date of course) for cheap at
yard sales. I took all such books of my mom's down to a place called
The Book Place where people could come in and get books for free.
Alternative would be to buy a set on eBay, but the ****pping would
probably be a killer. Or you could make a request for a used set on
Freecycle.
Than you could go through the set and make notes in it about what has
changed.
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