Enyclopaedias - end of an era!

[mind the gap]

It seems that after two centuries of publication, the Encyclopaedia Britannica will no longer be produced as a bound book, only digitally:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17362698

We have a full set of Children's Britannica from 1988 in good condition. I was going to sling them. Should I keep them - will they ever be worth anything?

[Mars Mug]

Well in another thread someone pointed out that digital data might be destroyed in the event of global nuclear war, so those books might come in useful then, to keep you warm for 20 minutes while you burn them in the nuclear winter.

[jjlandlord]

I would keep them, if only for the historical and decorative value.

[Lawcruncher]

Advantages of books:

*They boot up immediately.

*You can get jam on them.

*You can read them in bed by candlelight when there is a power cut.

*Encyclopaedias open up randomly and you get to read something you never set out to. If it were not for encyclopaedias I would not have known what a parabolic mirror was when I was eleven and help my house win the quiz.

*Apparently books are in fact easier to read than screens.

Instead of throwing them away they should be given to a dentist to put in his waiting room.

The question is whether books will ever go out of fashion. I think it will be a long time before they do, though this sort of thing is totally unpredictable. The question is touched on in Star Trek; Captain Jean-Luc Picard preferred books to electronic reading devices.

[mind the gap]

I would keep them, if only for the historical and decorative value.

Yes, I am inclined to agree. They were published before the fall of the Berlin Wall and there is no mention of global warming in them!

[mind the gap]

Advantages of books:

*They boot up immediately.

*You can get jam on them.

*You can read them in bed by candlelight when there is a power cut.

*Encyclopaedias open up randomly and you get to read something you never set out to. If it were not for encyclopaedias I would not have known what a parabolic mirror was when I was eleven and help my house win the quiz.

*Apparently books are in fact easier to read than screens.

Instead of throwing them away they should be given to a dentist to put in his waiting room.

The question is whether books will ever go out of fashion. I think it will be a long time before they do, though this sort of thing is totally unpredictable. The question is touched on in Star Trek; Captain Jean-Luc Picard preferred books to electronic reading devices.

I am persuaded!

[leaseholdanswers]

The EB was also great fun and very good for building forts.

Sitting in your room thinking about what you had done, not so much.

My older brother still has our family copy of the Children's version, and I have dim memories of it being sold door to door and the man turning up every month with a new volume.

How things have changed.