The World Book Encyclopedia 2023 - Hardcover 22 Volume Set - Over 17,000 Articles

Ignore the couple of mindless one-star reviews that merely express their misguided political dislike for traditional sources of information. Instead, please notice the various 5-star reviewers from various persons who have actually purchased and started using this set, as I have. My earlier set was a discounted Grolier Encyclopedia, and man, what a difference this set provides over that one. First, the index actually provides a lot more than just a list of the articles. And, unlike Britannica (now out of print), this 22-volume set is "all-in-one" - encouraging readers to simply look up their topic of interest and then follow as many references to other articles as they are interested in. Other sets instruct users to start with the index, which is not very enticing (and for a deep subject, can quickly get overwhelming).I am impressed with the lengthy "major articles" which can be identified by the presence of an Outline to summarize and guide you to the area of greatest interest. These articles could be 4 full pages long (e.g. John Adams, president) or dozens and dozens of pages long. That means that the content of a long article is comparable to, or greater than, many full books found in school libraries or juvenile sections of public libraries. Yet the authors here have much better credentials than many of those who have published those types of books - rather than just being journalists or occasional writers on random topics they feel are marketable, the World Book Encyclopedia provides articles written and reviewed by actual scholars in the appropriate fields.There are some really neat features included in this set. But unlike Wikipedia, the information is not overwhelming in quantity nor subject to vandalism (and disappearance). There's an old saying: "You get what you pay for." Those who want to learn from "free" online media will put in a lot of work and, honestly, are often not capable of assessing the correctness of the information they find. No single source can ever be totally complete or perfect, but an Encyclopedia set provides what is essentially an entire library of short books on a full range of subjects that provides something for everyone.Readers can easily make a habit of this set. Choose a theme and then read various articles along that theme: articles about every president of the U.S., for example, or every major sport, or every country in a given continent, or the history of... (you name it!), or surveys of every branch of science, then every sub-branch of that science that interests you. And, for most persons, you will never exhaust this set. You aren't likely to finish reading everything in it. But it can be helpful for decades. And, for topics whose information has changed, such as political information, World Book has annual yearbooks that will provide updated information as the years pass. The articles are far more readable than other sets I've seen, and include beautiful visual supplements and even some QR codes to bring in a multimedia aspect. For those who want all-digital material, that option exists (through subscription), but for those like me who want to minimize screen-based eyestrain and make notes and have numerous volumes open at the same time, this set is the way to go as it's pretty current (I write this as the 2025 edition has just become available) but it is discounted to be more affordable than the newest editions. (In my opinion, the covers are much more appealing and appropriate than the 2024 or 2025 pop-art ones.) World Book should consider offering multiple covers to suit different tastes for those who want these sets to look maximally appealing on their shelf. So far, I am really happy with my purchase. Let the readings begin!!! :-)

Pages are incorrect. Sent back to correct or exchange, but came back to me still wrong.So now I’m sending back for a refund.GOOGLE is free, cheap, accurate and doesn’t weight 160. WorldBook is obsolete!

So Google is great. You Google the thing you have a question on and you get 1 million pages of the one thing you queried.But looking up something in the encyclopedia is different . U find the thing you are interested in, but then you are looking through all the other things in that letter volume. You run down rabbit holes reading all the other articles that catch your eye. But you learn so many interesting things.Because they are in front of you to read!This was my 1980’s iPad. Mom would hand me a volume and say find something cool!Thanks Google. But give me an encyclopedia!Purchased a used set from a library. Arrived in perfect condition. Still has the reference stickers on the spine of the set but I can either remove or leave it. Doesn’t matter to me!

Everything was packed correctly and it arrived in a timely manner.

This is a beautiful set books, worth having one at home.

Unfortunately, World Book has decided to politicize its material through left-leaning bias even in their encyclopedias.

THE NATURE IN THIS BOOK LOOKS AWESOME BUT UNFORTUNATELY IT ALSO LOOKS LIKE THEY HAVE ALTERED CURRENT EVENTS THROUGH THEIR PERSPECTIVE THAT ARE NOT TRUE.THERE IS PROPAGANDA IN THESE BOOKS, AND SOME BIAS, SO I WILL PASS ON IT FOR MY CHILDREN.

WB never ceases to amaze. these are not quite as well-bound as the ones from the early 2000s and previous. it is the knowledge that is worth the price.