I received the quest, 'Find the copy of War of the First Council in Clearpine Pond.'

But strangely, I already have this book in my inventory. I keep my items organized really well and I honestly don't remember picking up this book anywhere.

Needless to say, I went to clearpine pond, I see the quest arrow pointing to the chest that holds the quest item. I open the chest but it's empty. I assume this is because I already have the book.

Anybody else have this problem? I think my only solution is to use the console to drop the book and pick it up, but hoping I can avoid that if possible.

I have that glitch on every character I've played so far. The quest bugs because the game places the first book you're meant to find in some random loot at the end of a dungeon before you even speak to Urag. So if you find the book first, he never recognizes your having it and you're stuck with it forever. There's no 360/PS3 fix as far as I know.

But if you're gonna use the console command anyway, you can just use it to advance to the next stage (Return the book to Urag.) It could be one of two codes depending on the book.

setstage MGR20 20

OR

setstage MGR20B 20

@http://www.gamesas.com/user/792580-gallariaichiban/

After reading your post I just went ahead and used the console. I couldn't find any info on the quest itself and since you're not sure of the exact setstage command I am afraid to use it (I don't like messing with the console at all) so I didn't go the setstage route. I just used the console command 'player.drop 0001B272 1' and the book dropped. I picked it up and completed the quest. Did it right in front of the questgiver in Winterhold Arcanium. I'm still baffled how I got the book in the first place.

Deleted double-post.

Glad it worked out! And yeah, more than likely you, like me, just found it in some random treasure and thought you may as well take it along. Most of the books Urag sends you out to look for have a value of at least 20 gold, so it works out to take it along since the books only weight a pound.