The book that most influenced my life is The World Book Encyclopedia. The 1971 edition that was shelved in the attic bedroom of my older sisters was white and green with gold lettering. The paper of the pages was thicker than those of any book I had ever felt with gold edges. It was elegant. On cold or rainy weekend afternoons, I would sit for hours on the floor in front of the bookshelf, browsing through the encyclopedia. I loved the articles about the individual states and countries with the maps and each article followed the same outline. I remember the entry for Flags with all of the mini-pictures of the flags across the two page spread. My favorite thing to do was to go to the “H” volume for the transparent pages about the human body.
And now, here I am over thirty years later, a college librarian, with the world of information at my fingertips still. But the clicking of the keyboard doesn’t feel the same as those thick, gold-edged pages.
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Chris,
ReplyDeleteI can't read your entry without thinking about two reference works from my childhood that filled many evenings in much the same way that you describe here: the 1958 Encyclopedia Britannica (which my parents had purchased), and the 1960 Rand McNally World Atlas. The Encyclopedia Britannica's "D-E" volume, I recall, had an entry for the word "dragon" showing a green-hued picture of a ferocious, lizard-like beast with huge claws defending itself against a warrior with a sword and sheild. The Rand McNally Atlas contained an endless series of state maps and population figures for every state and city in North America. I often can't remember where I left my glasses from one hour to the next, but for some reason, I still remember the population of Detroit from the 1960 census: 1,670,144. I think my love of trivia was born in my hours spent with that atlas.
Kevin Hoskinson