Sir, – Further to Róisín Ingle’s article (Life, November 23rd) and recent correspondence (Letters, November 24th and 25th), while it’s probably fair to acknowledge that my childhood was anything but deprived, one thing I really wanted but never got was an Encyclopaedia Brittanica. It’s hard to imagine now a time when television channels spent hours every day broadcasting testcards, but it was possible to reach depths of boredom at that time that are unknowable to modern children. Reference books, dictionaries, atlases and most of all encyclopaedias being opened randomly had something in common with the early exhilaration of surfing the internet, a phrase which already feels quaint. And the Brittanica was without doubt the best of all.
In early 2020, as the Covid pandemic hit, I sought distraction in reading about ancient philosophers, thinking they lived with such threats but kept them in perspective and retained focus and proportion, showing “stoicism”. Maybe they could teach me to do the same. Following an online course I listened to lectures on Socrates, Plato, Heraclitus and others.
It seemed inappropriate to read online about this archaic topic so I looked for a Brittanica collection online, wondering what they cost nowadays. I rapidly found one “free to a good home” available in Kildare and a relative collected it for me. It had been advertised for months, with no interest shown. With lockdowns it took a while to reach me, but it is now the perfect Zoom backdrop and an occasional distraction or source of illumination. And, having told the story to a few people, this summer I was contacted and offered another one – did I know anyone else who wanted one? It’s now also found a good home.
For anyone who feels the same way, it seems it is now possible to find a Brittanica collection for free, rescuing it from landfill, hopefully for another few decades. And the lack of distraction – that you cannot click onto the various terms within the article – means that you might actually end up answering the question that you went to look up in the first place. And thanks again to Catherine in Leixlip for her kindness and for not throwing them out! – Yours, etc,
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BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
Sir, – Marilyn Talty (Letters, November 25th) was fortunate that it was the 14th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica she inherited. It was in that edition that philosopher Edmund Husserl’s famous article on phenomenology first appeared. Really a phenomenal stroke of luck! – Yours, etc,
HARRY McCAULEY,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.