Encyclopaedia Britannica ends its print run

[VampDude]

The end of serendipity, as we know it.

Leafing through the world's knowledge, alphabetically, will become am obsolete tradition. The oldest English-language general encyclopedia -- according to, of course, the Encyclopædia Britannica -- will abandon foolscap once and for all.

"For 244 years, the thick volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica have stood on the shelves of homes, libraries, and businesses everywhere, a source of enlightenment as well as comfort to their owners and users around the world," reports its blog. "Today we've announced that we will discontinue the 32-volume printed edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica when our current inventory is gone." That inventory includes 4,000 in its warehouse -- about 8,000 sets have been sold at $1,395 a pop. (Seven million sets have been published in its storied history.)

Sad to see some of the negative effects of technology.

Story

I remember getting my first Encyclopaedia Britannica with a PC magazine in 2001, from then on, I got one every other year from different PC magazines.

They never made a penny from me, though I did once use the CD as a reference to a headache I once had in Central America... The encyclopaedia said it was dehydration, which I ate a heaped teaspoon of salt and drank a glass of water. True story, I was 18 at the time.