We did and I wish I still had them.

Some that were so out of date by the time I got to high school they were useless. Beautiful leather bindings though-lol. That salesman saw my parents coming.

We had a huge set. Which was a good thing, because while most people my age grew up with an internet connection, I didn't until I bought my first smartphone at 19.

We were too poor to have a set in the house and I envied my chums that had them.

So when my children were young, I bought a set. They were rarely used but they were there.

Mom bought a set of Encyclopedia Americana for my sixth birthday -- 15 November 1946. It was a set of 22 volumes and two yearbooks. I had read them all by my seventh birthday. Now, I don't mean I read every article, but I did read most of them. Some just didn't interest me. I loved those books. Of course, aside from school, most of the winter where we lived was mainly comprised of chores on the farm and inside time. We had a radio and I listened to the serials, but most of my inside time was spent in those beautiful encyclopedias.

We had a set. We used them frequently.

Yup we had a set. But to use the Britannica I went to the public library.

If you had a set of those - you were rich!

We had a set of Grolier Encyclopedias along with the annuals that came every year. I loved those things. Now I'm a librarian and I teach people how to find reliable information online.

We couldn't afford them, but I would sit for hours at the library reading theirs. I still do quite often, I'm not really very old but I tend 2 b old school on a lot of things. One of them being I'm terrible with computers! Lol, in fact I only found this site by accident

We had two sets. One from the 60s and one from the 80s that also published yearly updates. Sometimes I'd just sit and read whatever caught my eye. Early version of falling down a Wikipedia hole! ?

I had The World Book and Encyclopedia Britannica. I liked The World Book better. They were preinternet surfing for interesting tidbits of knowledge or for some in depth research.

We had a really old set, from the 30s. I used to like to look up stuff and see how much had changed from what was known then, to the 70s. There was a lot. Especially since it was pre-WWII.

We had a set. I remember my dad (who did the grocery shopping) would pick up a volume every week at the supermarket, they sold them one at a time in a series until you collected a whole set.

Wow! This topic hit a button in the 'way back' machine. I spent an inordinate amount of time sprawled out on the livingroom floor perusing various volumes of the Encyclopedia Britanica. Good times! Solitary, but good. Nothing like random information to make a body feel good!

My grandparents had a set of World Book encyclopedias from 1964-ish. He bought the yearbook update every year. I read those books retry much cover to cover over the years. Helped open my eyes to the world beyond.

We had the encyclopedia Britannica

brittanica. i liked to page through them when i was a kid

I didn't, but wished that I did. We have little money and few books. There was also no public library in the small town, but during the school year, I used the school libraty constantly.

I did. I loved looking through them. I would often have multiple volumes open at once.

We had a set of Encyclopedia Britannica. My mom also bought me a children's set of encyclopedias when I was 7 or 8. I remember asking my mom if I read them all I would be smarter. She told me yes, and so I read all of them.

What were those periodical indexes at the libraries called?

Those things in the big blue binders?

Also microfiche for research and citing sources.

Google is great but it takes much of the joy out of actually having to hunt down a source when you know damn well you are right.

Yeah, an old Book of Knowledge set, my siblings made fun of me for reading it so much.

I grew up in the 70's...which was an awesome time to be a kid in southern California. Anyway...my parents bought the whole set of Funk & Wagnall's encyclopedia set. Even came with this huge atlas.
Oh man...I read those books cover to cover! I was voracious. So much cool info! The glossy pages...the pictures...I was in heaven.
A few years later, my dad bought me the entire set of Funk & Wagnall's wildlife encyclopedias and I read all those too. Cover to cover. Multiple times. I can tell you things, man...lots and lots of things....

One massive set years ago, purchased so I would have as my kids grew. Damned if I know what happenened to them.

Oh, wow, what memories. I adored reading them. We also had a set of How Things Work!