Do you read encyclopedias?

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Yes, I do.

In fact I remember sitting on the floor reading them when I was three years of age.

I also read dictionaries quite often. I have even been known to occasionally read the telephone directory, but that is for entertainment. I try to find unusual names.

As a kid I used to read them obsessively and usually just one topic like the periodic table or something like that.

Hmmm..... I can definitely call myself a bona-fide, certified reference junkie and "Wiki-Holic"!

Roger Bannister said he read medical books when he was a kid too. People thought of him as weird. He became a successful doctor as well as becoming the first to run the mile in under four minutes.

I've loved reading the dictionary since I learned what it was in third grade.

Sometimes I'd get lost in the eclectic etymology, and sometimes I'd just delight in finding out that "there's a word for that"!
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Prefer knowledge to wealth, for one is transitory, the other perpetual.
SOCRATES

I have a collection of old encyclopedias and almanacs that I have read and re-read. I also keep a current dictionary in the living room bookshelf and find myself reading it on regular basis.

Ditto on Wikipedia. As a kid, my favourite part of the World Book was the first entry for each letter, and the evolution and various different representations of them (braille, semaphore, and those so-called "computer" letters).

After Encarta started charging people subscriptions, I began using Wikipedia.

Tim

God, I used to love Encarta. I would sit there for hours using it.
I also used to like to look at names in the phone directory and would sit on the toilet with a dictionary

I get stuck reading Wikipedia without even realizing I'm doing it. I'll go from article to article until I hit a dead end or am just too tired to continue. When I was in elementary school, I was obsessed with reading books about chronic diseases, and in middle school I would spend hours reading from the electronic Encyclopedia Brittanica on my computer.

I wanted to buy a set of encyclopedias so I could have my own 'information centre' in my bedroom, but complete sets are much too expensive and I can't stick an extra shelf in my room anyway (I have too many books).

So now I'm stuck with Wikipedia.

I used to read the encyclopaedia when I lived with my parents. I don't have any at my own place, but I am quite fond of Wiki-mining

yes and textbooks i read a whole infectious diseases text or reference book over 2 graveyard shifts--then i made a few changes in the hospital i was working in for infection control and sterility of surgical packs and the instruments in the wet boat etc....

I used to read through our now ancient encyclopedia set, medical encyclopedia, and dictionary. The encyclopedias were great, but when I found something interesting they were always so lacking in detail, but it did give me things to look up when we went to the library.
My favorite was reading the dictionary. I love flipping through and reading all the old words that are not used much anymore. Seeing how the language has changed and borrowed from other languages.
My brother and I occasionally will flip through the dictionary read out words and have the other person guess the definition of them. I love playing scrabble using those old dictionaries and pulling up old obscure words to use odd letter combinations.