When I was 7 my parents ordered a set of World Book Encyclopedias, mainly for my sister and me.
I spent countless hours reading through them. I would usually just pick a volume by letter at random, then spend a few hours reading it from cover to cover.
I learned a lot and enjoyed it, too.
Too bad for the demise of the print encyclopedia. They were good to have around.
Hold on to your older written encyclopedia especially if they were written before the advent of political correctness.You will be able to show your grandchildren what OBJECTIVE history was all about.
I never trusted the Encyclopedias. We had a set from about 1948 and when I was in High School and the geography section was a complete bust. The section on Africa not accurate and out of date every fifteen minutes. The records section was always out of date too...medicine was out of date...basically as the thing was being printed it was obsolete. It looked nice on the shelf...Richards I believe...