@FlockOfCats
1960s I bought the entire Junior World Encyclopaedia with pocket and birthday money.
My Dad still had his Arthur Mee Children's Encyclopaedia from the 1920s, and I also read a lot of that.
My family regard me as a friendly encyclopaedia, full of mostly useless knowledge.

@FlockOfCats I bought another set recently, forgetting how tiny the font was.

https://infosec.exchange/@davep/114494456507088443

@FlockOfCats@famichiki.jp i also read the entirety of textbooks at school, lol
we were only supposed to read specific sections

@FlockOfCats I did! It was awesome!

@FlockOfCats I did.

My parents bought one in the late 60s. It's crazy how even in the early 90s I sometimes still used it as a source for this or that.

Maybe that's why the world was going slower back then. Because we all had decades old encyclopedias?

@David

I think ours was from like 1988, so not that old when I was a kid, but some details did quickly fall out of date!

@FlockOfCats
You picked a funny reference ("I was counted in the mentioned event and I don't like it")

@David

@FlockOfCats Yes, 1989 was the year when I realized that maybe it was old. I still used it for non-historical things.

@David @FlockOfCats I remember we had the whole Britannica series (maybe 15 or 20 thick volumes) and my Dad was so mad becuase some guy borrowed one volume to do something and never returned it- and then we moved (countries). My Dad bought the whole set of another - funk and wagnalls encyclopedia too - smaller tomes I remember flipping through those

@David My encyclopedias were from the year I was born (1972). So you can imagine that, by the time I was in high school, they weren’t that useful. I took a straight razor to the P-Q volume and cut the middles of the pages out. It made a good place to stash stuff I didn’t want my parents to find.

In 2002 my mom still had them! I showed her the P-Q volume and she was horrified.
@FlockOfCats

@FlockOfCats Oh god. My grandmother had this humungous unabridged dictionary, and I did read it as a kid. Oh god.

@aspeed I still read dictionaries sometimes, and I'm 41
@FlockOfCats

@aspeed @FlockOfCats There's a book about the making of that dictionary.

True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color—from Azure to Zinc Pink by Kory Stamper

https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_06/true_color.html

@pussreboots @aspeed @FlockOfCats and it's hilarious at times!

@lizzard @aspeed @FlockOfCats

It's a very silly and informative book.

@aspeed @FlockOfCats Yup, there was a big old one in the dining room when I was a kid at home, used to find a word, then pick another from the definition and go and look at that one, and so on. I have it somewhere waiting to finally have a real home as pride of place on a bookshelf.

@FlockOfCats

I resemble that.

@FlockOfCats My father spent a night in jail in an American small town for selling encyclopedias door to door in the late 1960s.

@softicecreamlesley

…is that a crime? 😳

@FlockOfCats I think it was the door to door part that got him in trouble, but perhaps the sheriff felt threatened by a college boy selling books.

@softicecreamlesley @FlockOfCats we had two(!) sets of encyclopedias in the 1960s, presumably so Grandpa could flex. It was great until I got to college and found out Czechoslovakia was no longer one country

@soycamo @FlockOfCats hahahahaha
There was actually a Reel on Instagram where someone commented that they tried to send a letter to the Czech Republic at a Japanese Post Office and the worker said, “Oh, you mean Czechoslovakia?” Then the worker hauled out THE BOOK and looked it up, and to her surprise found out it was no longer 1992. 😂

@softicecreamlesley @soycamo @FlockOfCats

A friend of mine had an argument with an American bank teller who asked her which Germany she was from, because "I know there are two". My friend tried to explain to her that this was no longer the case, but eventually gave up and just said she was from West Germany. The teller replied "Thank you!" in the most sarcastic tone and proceeded to do the bank things she was there for.

This was in 2008.

@guenther @softicecreamlesley @soycamo

😂 😬

@guenther @soycamo @FlockOfCats 🤣🤣🤣

@softicecreamlesley @FlockOfCats please tell me it was funk & wagnall's??

@scoutie @FlockOfCats I have absolutely no idea!

@softicecreamlesley @FlockOfCats If your dad is still alive (I hope he is), please tell him that I have a respectful crush on him for this.

@ShaulaEvans @FlockOfCats He is, I’ll tell him, and I’ll make sure Mom doesn’t find out. 🤣

@FlockOfCats True facts!

@FlockOfCats Guilty as charged, your honour.

@FlockOfCats Yup! 🤣

@FlockOfCats brand new World Book 1985 set donated to my family. the gilt edges made me feel so rich. M and A were my favorite volumes.

@DulceMaria @FlockOfCats

I'd be an So-Sz man myself, because spiders.

These were a real extravagance for my parents but I ate them. Now my son gets really into them when we visit.

@davey_cakes @FlockOfCats ahhhh!! 😢🥰 love that you kept them

@davey_cakes @DulceMaria @FlockOfCats
I did NOT want to touch the full color spiders page
#HealthyRespect
I could definitely kill some time reading any volume, and the dictionary, too.

@davey_cakes @DulceMaria

Core memory accessed lol (we had world book too)

@FlockOfCats@famichiki.jp

@FlockOfCats Hmmm, I did do this...

@FlockOfCats
Oh shit I feel so seen! I DID THAT!

@FlockOfCats @paco
I mean jusr @ all of us next time.

@FlockOfCats ☝️

@FlockOfCats oh crap. Yeah. Guilty as charged.

@FlockOfCats Dictionary, but yep. It me.

@wcbdata @FlockOfCats Me too! (Plus the Brittanicas)

@FlockOfCats My mom had a complete OED when I was a kid. It came with a magnifying glass because the text was so small.

@Elleaster @FlockOfCats I have (genuinely) always dreamed of having a complete OED.

@ShaulaEvans @FlockOfCats It was great!

@ShaulaEvans @Elleaster @FlockOfCats Same!

@FlockOfCats @shansterable I *knew* I was in the right place!

We never had an encyclopedia until 10th grade when my dad remarried and we moved into my stepmom’s house.

My stepbrothers were partying and playing sports and dating girls, but I was no good at those things, and besides, have you seen the encyclopedia??? 🤣

@markc568
We had a full set of Funk and Wagnalls plus my aunt gave me a full-color illustrated encyclopedia that was about 8 inches thick that I used to peruse at my leisure LOL.

@FlockOfCats it me

@FlockOfCats Back in the day new parents were haunted by pushy salesmen who convinced them that they were neglecting their newborn by not immediately purchasing a set of encyclopedias.

@Barbramon1 @FlockOfCats And the Fedi crowd turned out awfully well so perhaps they were right!

@FlockOfCats dies world craft count? I think that is what those were

@FlockOfCats

Guilty.

@FlockOfCats Pick me! Hard bound 1956 Encyclopedia Brittanica that my parents bought for my much older sibs. I wasn’t even a twinkle in 1956

@FlockOfCats Is true for me.

@FlockOfCats I did, now that you mention it.

My parents kept *three encyclopedia sets* - I think 1911, 1946, 1980? And a one volume attempt from the 1890s.

The lot of them partly to see how What We Know changes, but also they had different good stuff.

@FlockOfCats

@FlockOfCats it all makes sense now.

@FlockOfCats How so? Who to follow?

@FlockOfCats why wouldn't a person though. So juicy!

@FlockOfCats I feel seen.

@FlockOfCats I feel attacked.

@FlockOfCats Sign me up!

Encyclopedia and dictionary… 😅

@FlockOfCats yeesh. Read me for filth why don't you 😅✨

@FlockOfCats HEY

@FlockOfCats I can't even argue. It's true. I did. How dare you, lol.

@FlockOfCats I feel seen

@FlockOfCats i have an encyclopedia of familiiar quotations, you can look up a word in the index and see all the quotes it is used in.

@FlockOfCats Damn, what a call out.

@FlockOfCats ...hey!

@FlockOfCats

I read technical manuals and research papers of all disciplines for fun, since before I learned how to read 🥰

My parents were always bringing home pretty awesome books of physics and all the other sciences and arts. My brain is a happy place

@FlockOfCats

@FlockOfCats Oh my. Had no idea others here besides me did that.

@FlockOfCats that Encarta CD that came with our Compaq Presario family computer was good for HOURS of fun. That and Age of Empires!

@FlockOfCats Richards Topical Encyclopedia. My favourite part was Volume 14, which introduced me to Greek and Roman mythology, Beowulf, Chaucer, the Nibelungenlied, King Arthur, and much more.

@FlockOfCats I used to print out the articles from groliers 🥲

@FlockOfCats I loved encyclopedias. My favorites were ones showing cross-sections or cutaways from structures like ships, castles or mines. It felt like exploring new worlds.

@FlockOfCats this is the toot I am in and I am NOT sorry. 😍

@FlockOfCats ✋🏻

@FlockOfCats To think we're now living in a world where I reckon more people might be familiar now with Wikipedia than the word "encyclopedia"... And a decade from now, who knows if Wikipedia per se will still be around...

@FlockOfCats I think that's how I view the whole internet!

We had Children's Britannica. And of course I read it! :)

@FlockOfCats

*Raises hand*

Read the encyclopedia set, read the dictionary, also read the Time-Life books (the digestive system book was my favourite) and all of Dad's Popular Mechanics books, too.

I love Fedi because it's full of my people.

@FlockOfCats You almost say that like it was a bad thing.😏

@FlockOfCats I still do it.

@rubinjoni @FlockOfCats same!

@FlockOfCats Does that include reading a thesaurus for fun as a youngster?

@lindasgoluppiart

We’ll allow it, permit it, and assent to it.

@FlockOfCats Most grateful.

@FlockOfCats
If we all would have done that, the world would be a better place.

@FlockOfCats My mom always put me in time-out in the room with the encyclopedias, so I started reading them. Watching her face when she caught me was amazing. No, that's not why she put me in there, but also, I was reading and learning things. LOL!

@FlockOfCats I am in this picture and I'm proud of it.

(1963 Brittanica. I still own it.)

@FlockOfCats Compton’s Encyclopedia, every volume.

@mrcranky @FlockOfCats We had a 1940 Compton’s Encyclopedia. This caused me some problems, as the world had changed quite a bit between 1940 and 1970.

@FlockOfCats ::blushes::

@FlockOfCats We could only afford A-C. But I m see memorized all three!

@FlockOfCats I still do 😄

@FlockOfCats
My teachers talked to my parents during COVID, because I was distracted during online classes, reading Wikipedia...

@FlockOfCats

The full Britannica, 1964 edition.

That, and reading every Vonnegut book multiple times in grade school, helped prepare me to face the challenges of our modern dystopia.

@FlockOfCats

@FlockOfCats My first computer was my dad's retired DOS laptop, and the only software/game I had was... Encyclopedia Britannica. Which I used, a lot. Until years later, I got Where In Time Is Carmen San Diego.

@FlockOfCats WHY YOU

@FlockOfCats Hey, I resemble that remark.

I still have our Britannica set. It's on a shelf in the corner, with a dictionary and a slide rule. I'm not even joking.

@FlockOfCats The storyline was confusing as heck, but I made it thru all 20 or so books.

@tkissing 😂

@FlockOfCats EVERYTHING was in the encyclopedia so of course I read it. Actually them, we had at least two old sets of encyclopedias from charity sales plus the children's version I soon tired of.

@FlockOfCats
As a child, I loved spending hours reading my grandmother’s encyclopaedia (Meyer’s New Encyclopaedia). That explains my love for the Fediverse 😃

@FlockOfCats I feel seen.

@FlockOfCats Didn't everyone do that?

@jkanev I think some people played sports or something?

@FlockOfCats You mean, instead of reading? : ) Anyway, I had a children's encyclopedia which was quite popular at the time.

@FlockOfCats Count me in 😅

@FlockOfCats 👋

@FlockOfCats Been there, done that ....

@FlockOfCats

Specifically, the Dune Encyclopedia.

@FlockOfCats yeah, can confirm https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyers_Konversations-Lexikon#Meyers_Neues_Lexikon #flashback

@FlockOfCats it is unfair to call me out like that. I read the dictionary too

@FlockOfCats
Yup. Can confirm.
Nowadays reading Wikipedia, the modern-day encyclopaedia.

@swoonie The reason I wrote this toot is that I saw like four things fairly close together in my timeline of people being like “here’s a cool thing I saw on Wikipedia!”

@FlockOfCats
👍

@FlockOfCats Aiye. Present and counted.

@FlockOfCats wait I thought everyone did?

@FlockOfCats Not all the volumes though. I had my favourites.

@FlockOfCats you're gonna love the German word "Selbstbeweihräucherung". Look it up!

@FlockOfCats
Dad bought Purnell's Concise Encyclopedia of Science for me when I was a kid. I read it from cover to cover so many times. I used to carry it with me to school so I could keep referring to it.

I still have it over 50 years later.

@FlockOfCats What! Anyone my generation had the "Enciclopèdia Catalana" with their glorious green tomes.

And it was wonderful :)

@FlockOfCats

I have the squat cherry bookshelf that came with the set M&D had before we even came along. The grayish-cream set of books trimmed in avocado long-ago garage-saled or Goodwilled.

But I never considered them learning either. It was just passing time. And not like I studied them. But things like encyclopedias were what we had when we got bored of being bored when it was raining, and we ran-out of Scooby-Doo marathons.

@FlockOfCats
I'm in this picture and I like it ^_^J

@agturcz

@FlockOfCats
That was me!

@FlockOfCats ... you are right

@FlockOfCats My parents' answer to any kind of general knowledge question I had as a kid was "You know where the encyclopedia is kept..."

I see from the replies that I am among my kind of people. 😊

@FlockOfCats It's me!!! 😃
My dad had a lot of different encyclopedias (medical, motors, art, insects, for the young, for the modern woman, ...). I've read all of them many times.

@FlockOfCats which is a normal thing to do.

@FlockOfCats

But also for all other well-meaning people.

@FlockOfCats yep 😂 I remember my dad buying a set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and I worked my way through it steadily. Then we got a copy of Microsoft Encarta, then the internet, and here we are.

@FlockOfCats Yes, it's true...

@FlockOfCats fediverse more like funkandwagnallsverse

@FlockOfCats fun?

@FlockOfCats so you say it's not for me?

@FlockOfCats
Happy memories of all 30 volumes of the encyclopædia spread around the room at a party, to the bemusement of the few non-geeks, as we shared interesting things which no longer had any obvious connection to the original question.

@FlockOfCats My Dad read the dictionary, so I'm the socialized version.

@FlockOfCats OH MY GOD DID WE ALL DO THIS

@solsetur lol apparently!

@FlockOfCats @solsetur I read some in the encyclopedia, but my serious cover-to-cover fascinations were with a one volume illustrated encyclopedia of motorcars, and the original edition of The Way Things Work. Which kind of amounts to the same thing.

@FlockOfCats I never made it all the way thru our Britannica set. But I finished the Websters Unabridged 3rd Edition I got for my birthday. I also compared it page by page with the old 2nd Edition on our basement bookshelves. The 2nd Edition had a lot more illustrations.

@FlockOfCats Or the dictionary. I would sit for hours, late into the night, with the OED in front of me, just learning new words. :)

@FlockOfCats
And are either a bad thing?

@FlockOfCats I read the complete "Lexikon drr germanischen Mythologie" (Lexicon of nordic mythology) only three years ago.

@FlockOfCats
That’s me 😬🙄

@FlockOfCats I feel seen..

@FlockOfCats

How'd you know?

@FlockOfCats Accurate enough, yeah.

@FlockOfCats I feel seen.

@FlockOfCats@famichiki.jp …how did you know?!

@FlockOfCats I feel called out.

@FlockOfCats Dang, do I feel seen by this post! 🤓

@FlockOfCats ...reading and cross-referencing terms in Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary. Probably says a lot about me.

@FlockOfCats
Puh, ich bin nicht allein.😅🤭

@elala @FlockOfCats allerdings. ich musste gerade echt breit grinsen.

ich habe extra meine Kinder Enzklopädie aufgehoben aber meine Kinder wollen die gar nicht lesen.

@FlockOfCats I still do that

@FlockOfCats way to call us out!

@FlockOfCats

I preferred math books 😂

@FlockOfCats Still do. It's easier these days.

@FlockOfCats

My parent scored a set of Britannica for $50 at a garage sale, they were only a couple of years old, ~1981 edition. My sister and I saw the books the next morning and almost screamed in excitement.

But for light entertainment it was Fowler's Modern English Usage.

@TallSimon I haven’t read Fowler‘s, but I have read Garner‘s modern American usage, which, of course, name checks Fowler a lot 🤓

@FlockOfCats It was fun though!

Now we wiki dive for hours randomly

@FlockOfCats Why am I being called out like this? 😂 grew up in a library that my father insisted was our home 😬

@hiway @FlockOfCats Sounds like an amazing place!

@FlockOfCats 100%

@FlockOfCats
This kid

@FlockOfCats

Encyclopedia Britanica - ah yes, I remember it well... 📚 📖

@FlockOfCats Let’s start a poll to see if Fedi folks used to read encyclopedia for fun when they were kids.

@FlockOfCats @futzle Er, guilty as charged...

@FlockOfCats do encyclopedia CD-ROMs count?
Compton's Concice Encyclopedia, i still hear "A cowboys favorate song" when i think of Windows 9X

@FlockOfCats wdym not everyone had big illustrated encyclopedia they'd reread southand times until remember every word and picture from it as a kid?

@FlockOfCats can confirm

@FlockOfCats
Does s/encyclopedia/bible/ count?

@FlockOfCats
We didn't have the Internet, we had to make our own boredom.

@FlockOfCats I got the Ancient Greek and Latin dictionaries as a gift since I always stole away with them when visiting my dad's ex. Oh, and I read the OED, etymology section. And various encyclopedias.

What I'm saying is: What an unnecessary callout!

@FlockOfCats I've seen a toot somewhere describing it as Linux twitter lol

@FlockOfCats

I thought I was the only one who did this as a kid... I'm happy to learn that I wasn't alone.

Grandparents had the World Book Encyclopedia from the 1960's along with all the annual updates up into the 1980's in a cabinet; and I read them all.

@FlockOfCats why only as kid ?

@FlockOfCats You, too?

@FlockOfCats I'm pretty sure everyone did that as a kid.

@FlockOfCats Can't disagree with that.

@FlockOfCats @DulceMaria funny coincidence. A few days ago friends were discussing children’s books they knew and loved as a kid and I was unfamiliar with all of them. They asked what I read as a child and I said “the world book encyclopedia.”

@rickscully @FlockOfCats one of us! one of us!

@FlockOfCats@famichiki.jp FUCK YOU GOT ME ​​​​

@FlockOfCats now that you mentioned that, i do in fact read some articles on internet for fun, especially Wikipedia.

@FlockOfCats I'm in this picture... and I DO like it!

@FlockOfCats you got me

@FlockOfCats Hey now! /lh

@FlockOfCats
no joke the book that kept me the busiest until I was like 12

@FlockOfCats

@FlockOfCats hey - that's me! (Sometimes then, and with Wikipedia ofren now).

@FlockOfCats where do I go if my favorite childhood book was the dictionary? The encyclopedias we had were very old, so younger me thought they were relics.

@FlockOfCats it was just a single volume!

@FlockOfCats Im feeling caught out. 👀

@FlockOfCats I feel seen. 😅

@FlockOfCats I read several, because they had different POVs and presentation methods.

@FlockOfCats
1938 Encyclopaedia Britannica that lived in our house.
Mind I was born in 1952 so it wasn't that old really.

Why the 🤔?

@FlockOfCats As a wee one, I had that double track tray and received cards about creatures around the world every month. That was super cool!

@FlockOfCats who didn't ? 🤣

@FlockOfCats My parents bought Encyclopaedia Britannica in '75 when I was nine. I always had about five volumes opened on the floor at once in a sort of hyperlink fashion. It was bloody great!

@FlockOfCats@famichiki.jp hey!
don't call me out like that!
i only had like 4 different encyclopedias or so i think!

@FlockOfCats same for me but it was before internet 🤣

@FlockOfCats

This is both a nerd thing and an age thing.

@FlockOfCats I know I did! I also made a list of all nasty words I found in Shakespeare (Finnish translation) and tried to find definitions in dictionary. Mother found the list and was horrified. I don't think I managed to explain her that they were from The Taming of the Shrew ....