R.I.P., Encyclopedia Britannica
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.
During my teenage years, when my thirst and respect for knowledge were at an unsustainable peak, I resolved to read the Britannica from one end to the other. Or if not read, at least page through; even a young person much deluded about his own capacities cannot have imagined that he would absorb every single word about Bézique, Litomerice or even Trappists.… Seguir leyendo »