CP wrote --
He's more into science fact books, reading these mini encyclopedia type
compendiums of animal or other Nature facts.
We had an Encyclopedia Britannica, c. 1948, and I think over time I read
most of the the like 26 volumes. Not every single story, not every single word, but I would open a book and flip through to find something that caught my attention.
Over the years and a series of moves those were lost along the way.
Dag! My Mom had bought the 1967 Silver Title Edition on the occasion of my birth. (they were leather-bound & embossed with sterling silver lettering)
I did as you, & would use them as my go-to boredom relief, just grab one, open it, read something, follow the "sees also" into multiple volumes.
When I gahad to find a fact for school, instead of, as my peers, just finding that sentence, I'd read the context, chase down other related articles & know 100+ things instead of just one. I still have a lot of that info in my brain, but my mom sold the set cheaply, after all the kids had moved out (I wished I had it, I'd start at page 1, vol. 1, & read through the entire thing, & time it then challenge the world to beat me! (& be sure to get some sort of token from Britannica for promotional efforts--maybe the latest set & yearbooks(my mom had 20 years of the yearbooks, too.)
We had the World Book, too, but I didn't bother with that -- once I was in the EB, I was not going to read from lesser. . .
I like reading the OED, too, but no way can I afford the full 11-volume set of tomes. I see Z-Lib is lacking in reference works. I uploaded an older Physician's Desk Reference, as they had none!
Maybe I'll put in a search for the full OED, & hopefully get it for my phone for light reading while riding buses. . .
They do a grand job on etymology for each word.
--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)