cella-dore

[cella-dore]

Some ramblings on encyclopedias

I love my copy of the New Encyclopaedia Britannica. I got my set in very good condition for only $300. There's a personality to a lot of the articles, especially in the Macropaedia—this really comes through in articles like Aesthetics or The Art of Literature. You can see the personality of each contributor in the articles in a way that doesn't come through in Wikipedia's articles—though Wikipedia does have its own personality. And it just feels lovely to flip through it in a way that using Wikipedia isn't—though I admit that Wikipedia is much more broad in scope and I find no major difference in terms of accuracy (I myself use Wikipedia to find much useful information regarding various orthographies). I feel wonder at the articles and pictures in a way that I don't with Wikipedia. And Britannica is very obviously outdated, which impedes it usefulness. But I love it all the same. It's just a lovely set of 32 volumes.

As far as encyclopedias go, this and the Columbia Encyclopedia, the most comprehensive single-volume encyclopedia—it's incredible that it has over 50,000 articles!—are definitely my favorite encyclopedias. Unfortunately, I just didn't really click with the World Book Encyclopedia, but it's probably the best physical encyclopedia for most people: it's up-to-date and has very lucid entries.

Further note on the Columbia: it's just an incredible feeling, knowing how much knowledge is packed in this single volume. A magnificently large book. It is, indeed, "The world—between two covers," as the dust jacket claims. And not only does it have very many articles, each article is as comprehensive as can be for a single-volume encyclopedia. While the Britannica is more erudite, the Columbia tends to be more comprehensible to the typical layperson.

I just love reading through these encyclopedias; for example, I never knew about Addis Ababa—capital of Ethiopia—or Abydos—important archaeological site and ancient city in Egypt—but I do now! Anyways, what are your favorite encyclopedias? I would love to hear from you!