Trying my hand at a mage again. Did it only once before and retired her at around 14th level. She basically just used destruction.

So I'm wanting to go all out with this next girl. Max out some skills, get some master spells, etc. Right now I just left Helgen and Riverwood and just leaving Whiterun to kill the first dragon.


My first problems is easy I think. Maybe I'm just missing something. When I go to buy spell books I have no way of knowing what spells I already know and the only way I know to not buy a spell I already have is to see what the vendor has, leave dialog and check my spells against his stock, then enter dialog again to buy those needed. I can tell that as I get more and more spells this is really gong to be a pain. Is there some way to know what spells I have while talking to the vendor or do I need to make a spreadsheet of all the spells in the game and check them off as I get them?

After I kill this dragon ... (No idea how I'll do that actually. I guess I'll just loot bodies while the others kill it. I'm sure my little novice spells won't hurt it much and I'm not sure I want to get that close anyway) ... where is a good place to find some spells in Whiterun? I figure I'll get all I can there first, then travel to the College to start my career as an apprentice mage. Are there any other places to get good useful spells (either find or buy) when you are just starting out?

Thanks.