When I was a kid about 30 years ago my parents bought for me the World
Book set of encyclopedias. It was fairly common for the families we
knew. I used to just browse volumes of the encyclopedia sometimes.
What do people think now about making such an investment, where there
are alternatives such as Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias (for
a fee).
Steve Sailer wrote an essay comparing Wikipedia and Brittanica
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/07/real-problem-with-wikipedia.html
,
asserting the former is dull.