I get that Skyrim is more streamlined that Oblivion, but removing haggling and the speechcraft mini game kind of limits how people interact with you. Tbh, I really like the character interaction so far, since is it seems far more realistic and the characters seem like real people. However, my options for interacting with the same people are somewhat limited because my speech skill only increases with Merchants and NPCs that have persuade/intimidate conversation options.

Basically, I would like to be able to increase my Speech ability with every person and also with every book I interact with. Wait, Books? Yes, because that is where we increase our vocabulary and extend our understanding of the structure of language. It would also a great incentive to pick up and actually read some of the great little tidbits of Tamriel lore and literature sprinkled about the land of Skyrim.

its rolled into speech craft and is still there, and some books will give you a skill up.

I didn't mind this nearly as much as i thought i would, but i don't like the idea of them taking out disposition.

Haggling in oblivion required that you risk pissing off your merchant by literally trying to find his pricepoint. That is haggling. In Skyrim you get a "Perk" that says that no matter how the Merchant feels about you, you're always getting 30% off. That is not haggling, that's just a discount.

When I say "read" books. I mean actually spend time reading the words, not just clicking on random books about speechcraft. Getting skill ups for clicking on a book is exactly like clicking an attack button and watching a brief cutscene of the fight, or getting sneak skill ups for simply pressing a sneak button (regardless of visibility or time spent).

I see it as being an abstraction for the haggle. The perk just assumes you're so gifted at haggling you'll get the discount no matter what their disposition is. If they could find a mini-game that actually made haggling fun, that would be cool, but bumping price points up and down just didn't feel compelling to me as a game mechanic.

I don't think its "exactly the same at all". Interacting in combat is fun. Turning pages just doesn't engender the same feeling of action. To force someone to page through the skill book is only turning a one-click job into a 10 click job.

Using a slider isn't sixy, but it is haggling, Standardized discounts are not an abstraction of haggling, but non-standard discounts that took into account race, speech, gender (non-perk), and disposition would be an acceptable level of abstraction for me.

"Page turning" is actually quite nice if you like reading. And TES always has decent stories in their books, and they often get overlooked. I don't want to force anyone to read, but I still think there should be an in game reward to do so.

Oddly enough, i once opened a book and didn't get a skill up from it...set it down, and looked around the room. Then i realized that it was a new skyrim only book and it looked somewhat interesting, so i decided to read it...and, oddly enough, after i turned a few pages i gained a skill level!

That is interesting. I read serveral books cover to cover last night, and got ZERO speech skill ups.