R.I.P., Encyclopedia Britannica

The Encyclopedia Britannica may have been eclipsed by Wikipedia, but nothing can replace the wonder of chance discoveries among weighty volumes filled with dispassionate authority.

These days, the sound of the digital scythe being whetted makes me cast more lingering looks at the paper and cardboard relics on my bookshelves. At none more, since the announcement in March of their imminent extinction, than the familiar brown and gold, oddly titled volumes of my 1958 Encyclopedia Britannica: HYDROZ to JEREM, MARYB to MUSHE, SARS to SORC.

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