Encyclopedia Britannica to go

I recently subscribed to the Encyclopedia Britannica, using the iPad app. For a modest sum, you can gain access to a wealth of information written in a pleasingly scholarly tone. I was curious about the app as I read recently that this venerable institution of western knowledge was, for the first time, going out of print and destined in the future to rely only on digital forms of propagation. I don't really know what this means for knowledge, but I felt it signified something of interest.
I am as guilty as the next person of relying on Wikipedia for 'snippets' of information, and while I always read material from that source with a proverbial block of salt, it was still deeply refreshing to dip into the Britannica and read scholarly articles written with some skill and rigour. In fact, I had forgotten what such writing was like. While you wouldn't accuse the Britannica's writers of dazzling wordplay, the articles are written to a thoughtful structure, and possess the many elements of good scholarly writing. The transmission of meaning in the one long article I read, on the Byzantine Empire, was both subtle and nuanced; in contrast to the flat and two-dimensional tone of much of Wikipedia, the writing was well-rounded and satisfying in an informative kind of way. That the article had a structure at all was almost startling enough, and felt like a cool drink in a drought.
I recommend it for all your random knowledge needs.