Remembering the World Book Encyclopedia

I think Catholic Bibliophagist (The adventures of a Catholic reader with a catholic library) is a fun blog to watch. Today She was on the subject of Encyclopedias.

Here is a part
I know all about reading the encyclopedia. My parents bought The World Book Encyclopedia when I was in third grade. To me, this was the most exciting purchase of my childhood. You have to understand that my parents were not bookish people. So there weren’t a lot of books in our house. But they highly valued education, hence the encyclopedia.I couldn’t believe our good fortune. All of those lovely unread volumes -- none of which would ever need to be returned to the public library. Over the next few years, I must have have read the entire thing, some parts over and over. Of course, I didn’t didn’t sit down with Volume A and read the whole thing straight through. I’d read a random article which would refer me to another topic and another and another . . .Which is what happens to me now on the Internet. On link leads to another, and suddenly I’ll find myself on an amazingly cool blog or website having no idea how I got there.

Goodness that is exactly how I felt. The World Book Encyclopedia rocked. We lived out in the country so there was no cable tv. There was no internet to say the least. This was the age of the atari 2600. I could just spend hours reading the World Book. There sections on the US Presidents were great. I really think I started my love for history by reading the World book.
Then every year they send a update that was labeled by year which was a whole new book. Great times.