{"id":4418,"date":"2019-05-20T12:04:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T19:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=4418"},"modified":"2019-05-20T12:04:12","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T19:04:12","slug":"goodbye-to-an-encyclopedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2019\/books\/goodbye-to-an-encyclopedia\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye to an Encyclopedia"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the book launch of my latest novel<\/strong><\/a>, Sunflowers Under Fire, <\/strong><\/em>I said goodbye to an encyclopedia. It wasn’t easy, saying goodbye to an old friend. The Encyclopedia Brittanica<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>had graced my bookshelves for more than half my life. My parents had bought the 24 volumes when I was sixteen from a door-to-door salesman. And they also bought the next ten Books of the Year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"goodbye<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Valuable Gift<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know the cost, but I’m sure to them it was a small fortune. They didn’t make much. Dad was a blue collar worker in a meat-packing plant and Mom was home running her rooming house and almost farm-sized back garden. So I know that what they’d done was invest in my future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn’t have a lot of books in the house. Mom couldn’t read. Dad was the one who loved reading but he was too busy working at the factory and then after work, helping mother at home. I can count on one hand the number of times he went to the library. He stopped going when Mom bawled him out for getting a parking ticket there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"goodbye<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Realizing the value of the gift, I resisted giving away my encyclopedia. I know that seems overly dramatic but it’s how I felt at the thought of giving them away. It seemed an ungrateful move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom and Dad are no longer around, so I can’t explain why the encyclopedia had to go. You see, I have a problem. I LOVE BOOKS. Since I keep buying books and find it hard to part with them, I had run out of room in my office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, times have changed. People don’t consult bound encyclopedias. At least I don’t, not with the internet so handy. Even associations like the Rotary Club and other worthy organizations no longer want them for their fundraising book sales events. They’re too hard to unload.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ad<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, I checked Ebay and there were some sets for sale but nothing seemed to be moving very fast. So, needing to make room for all my other books, I decided to advertise the whole lot for FREE on CraigsList and Kijiji. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"goodbye
Some of My Books<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I got a number of calls. One from a writer. He lives on Cortez Island, a place that draws people who love nature and the arts. I knew one guy who tried to support himself there by selling candles. Cortez is also famous for its Gestalt therapy programs in the 1970s. There were a few sex scandals. It’s that kind of place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I digress. Anyway, this writer called and asked if he could have the encyclopedia for his friends, who were heading to Mexico on a boat and wanted to have the volumes to home-school their two teenage children. I thought, How perfect. There’ll still be some use for my tall, burgundy, leather-covered books of knowledge. I wondered though what these teens might make of a resource that only went so far. Like, if they wanted to know what happened past 1969. But then I thought, maybe they’d dock places where there was wifi, so they could fill in the rest of history by roaming the net. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All’s Well That Ends Well<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, Mom and Dad would be surprised I gave their investment away for nothing. But I think they’d be pleased that the encyclopedia was going to two young people, roughly the age their daughter was when she got them. It’s win-win. Happy about that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Did you have an Encyclopedia? Do you still have it? And do you use it? Would love to hear your thoughts on the books that once were the cat’s meow in people’s homes. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the book launch of my latest novel, Sunflowers Under Fire, I said goodbye to an encyclopedia. It wasn’t easy, saying goodbye to an old friend. The Encyclopedia Brittanica had… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[744],"tags":[78,1044,1021,33],"class_list":["post-4418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-diana-stevan","tag-encyclopedia-brittanica","tag-sunflowers-under-fire","tag-writer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_6435.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-19g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4258,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2019\/writing\/soft-launch-of-sunflowers-under-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":4418,"position":0},"title":"Soft Launch of Sunflowers Under Fire","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"13 \u041a\u0432\u0456\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I never planned a soft launch for my latest novel, Sunflowers Under Fire, a historical fiction. 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