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.

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....

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

We did and I loved looking at them but the minute we got them they were already outdated. Love instant access to random trivia.

Little known tidbit - the whole set is called an encyclopedia. It has many volumes, but not many encyclopedias.

They were the closest most accessible source of any real knowledge. That and the periodical card catalog at the town library. Columbia Encyclopedia I think was the set at home.

I used to get very frustrated with encyclopedias. They were cumbersome, expensive--and they were outdated every year.

As a child we had none. Later on I got a set of outdated ones that we kept around. We used them often during high school coz they were in the study hall room.

Me too, rainy day reading

Encyclopedia Britannica and there was a science encyclopedia for children that was sold at the grocery store. I'd pester my mom wanting to know when the next came out. Whenever we went to the store, I'd rush to the display looking for the latest issue.

Used to. Grew up with them, great investment for children. Never a boring moment.

I did, and they were instrumental in my education in my grade-school years.

Yes had quite a few books too

I have the set my parents got when I started 7th grade. My oldest son adopted them so I'm still hauling the damn things around. At least they have their own bookcase.

One of my favorite things to do with my father was to read them. We got them with deals at the grocery store ? My favorite was the anatomy pages with the picture lay overs.

World Brittanica. Leather bound. A complete set my parents bought from a traveling salesman probably in the late 60’s. I LOVED getting lost in them reading just about anything!! Used them for MANY school reports and papers! I especially loved when there was a picture somewhere too. They were in a book case two tiered that was sold with them. This was a huge deal for us living in the country. We didn’t have a library for miles. Actually a lady came to our house maybe once a month with a traveling library in her car. I would jump in he back seat when I was little and the kids books were in the rear window. Loved that life!!!!

By the time I was 16 I could recite entire World Book articles by memory on the most random of topics! ???

Yep, Encyclopedia Americana. Every year we'd get a new volume of updates and corrections. I think I learned a lot reading those volumes; much better than Wikipedia.

I had both a set that they got for me as a kid and my father's set from when he was a lad, interesting to compare the two.

We had the World Book Encyclopedia and I LOVED it. It was a great source of knowledge for me, and when I couldn't get to the library, it provided for hours of reading, where one article might spark interest in something else, which lead me yet another and another... It was like going on science and history sites on the internet.