In the 60s, my mother purchased a two-volume desktop encyclopedia, Columbia it was called. Over the years, I made many references to it. When I moved east, it, along with many other books, was left behind. Since then, I relied on computer searches, which are fine ... if the computer is running. But, I wanted something that was bound, something without an on-off switch, so that I could look up items of interest while I was reading printed volumes, which I still prefer vastly to electronics ... kindle is what you do to a fire.

I discovered that the offerings of desktop encyclopedias are scant, and even this one was used, published around 2007. Still it serves my need for a quick reference, without having to start a computer.

This "Britannica Concise Encyclopedia" is really concise although it is still very thick (about 2100 pages, and 2 columns/page). It contains large information about many broad subjects such as Arts, Business, Computers, Geography, History, Literature, Medicine, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture, Science, and Sports. However, it does not have much specific natural sciences: Mathematics, Chemistry or Physics (nevertheless, computer and science are there). In short, this is a good one-volume encyclopedia.

Perfect, colorful. I'm older, used to looking things up in a book. This is excellent - affordable - enough info about topic to get you going - info is reliable. Would highly recommend it to families to get the kids familiar with something beside Wiki.

My husband insisted we needed this type of reference resource on hand for our kids. It has remained mostly unused. Just take them to a library to learn about the archaic use of print encyclopedias.

I'm enjoying this reference so much.

Lot's of maps which I love and enough

about so many things that just whets

my appetite to go learn more. Also,

of course, a easy quick-reference when

I hear a name or place or whatever that

I've never heard of or just want to

see a little more about.

The condition was listed as “good” but I would say it would be better described as “excellent”. It’s perfect and is going to be a great addition to my personal library.

Seems like a great deal--the Britannica Concise version for $7.99? Well, the file is nearly 140 Megabytes and will not fit on your Kindle drive unless it's practically empty. I downloaded and transferred via USB to my 2 Gigabyte SD card. It does have a Table of Contents but it has only one entry for the entire encyclopedia, so everything you want to look up has to be done using Search (which would be reasonable for an encyclopedia). After leaving the Kindle run for several hours to create the Search index I had no luck. I consulted Kindle Support via email and was told that it would take over eight hours to index the file for searching. I left my Kindle on (with AC adapter) for over twenty hours (just to make sure) and it still wasn't searchable so I deleted it from the SD card. Too bad. It would have made a great portable reference tool.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia is up to the standard! Great, quality book. Strong binding, plenty of information in it. My kids are always asking why and what, so I point them to this book all the time.

Good quality, great packaging and prompt delivery!

Very elegant presentation for an excellent reference book. Only if: biographic info is a bit too show-biz oriented and lacks some 2nd-tier (but relevant) historic personalities of the 20th century.

Delivery was a bit prolonged, but price for delivery was very low.

Definitely recommendable - but far too heavy. You need a table to be able to freely browse or concentrate. It's presented well, illustrations are (thankfully) usually small, the addition of some maps is also good. 'Howbooks' have wrapped it well, in bubblewrap, and then in the corrugated-paper wrap-package. With such a weighty tome I was curious if the book would get a few dents. For a so-called secondhand edition - well, I know stores that would have this as new. For me it is new, no pun intended.

Bought this for my husbands 70th birthday. He has said its a great book!