speak for yourself

TES games have had always interesting books, many of the books might help you find new quests or locations, heck some of the books might point out effective combat tactics against certain creatures. Not to mention many of the books are really awesome, they really have put some effort in them.
I don't randomly just read each book I find, but I always collect them. You never know when you might want to read something. Knowledge is power.

I agree, The Mirror is a great book.

I also enjoy the http://www.imperial-library.info/content/eslaf-erol-series-beggar-0 (Beggar, Thief, Warrior, King). I always try to find all 4 books of that series on all my characters. Well, they are skill books as well as contain a great story!

I've read almost every night for the past decade. I read one thousand and twenty one pages in four days. Hell, I used to write novels when I was fifteen and I still have one exceptional idea in my head that, given the opportunity, will become a Skyrim mod.

Speak for yourself. :<

I've read some of the ingame books, but not all by any means.

You're the perfect example of what happens when players don't read the in-games books. You don't read the books, consequently you don't understand the game because you know nothing of the lore it's based on. The worst is that after a while you'll come here complaining that Skyrim is boring.

Aw, you should read them at least once! There are a lot of great anecdotes to be found.

Some of my favorites: Argonian Account and A Dance in Fire (collections), A Game at Dinner, The Axe Man and the various books of riddles.

I read some of the books in Morrowind and they did not give me anything. I only felt like an idiot staring at a computer game trying to read a book. They kept appearing in Oblivion and now in Skyrim. Seeing your comment only strengthens my believe. It is important for loreheads but for nobody else.

Really? You learned nothing? Strange.

And while it feels a little strange reading a book on a computer game is that any different from reading an E-Book on an iPad?

Not trying to understand what you're reading is not the solution. Each book in the game is a piece of a giant puzzle; you get the final image when you've finished reading them. To play a TES game, you must be a "lorehead" or you're missing their essence; doesn't make any sense.

If "lorehead" means anyone even remotely interested in the history/culture of Tamriel, then I'd agree.

I blame my brainwashed MMO mentality, but I never read the books as I like to clear dungeons at a healthy pace. I love to read, too. I really should start checking them out...

For that, I recommend the book called 'Alduin Is Real'.

I lol'd when I read Kolb and the Dragon.

I have the pdfs on my phone

...

I said it makes me feel like an idiot. So, yes, I did learn something.

I do not care about e-books. As I said before do I like a good book made of paper. E-books are not a real innovation when they only try to imitate books. A paper book can be recycled easily unlike iPads and e-book displays. To me are these device, when only used for e-books, a waste of resources and they will likely end up polluting our environment. I can exchange paper books with my neighbor and nobody will care about it, whereas with e-books am I being confronted with DRM and copyright. I believe I have good reasons to avoid these.

Because I find the time spend with reading a paper book more valuable than reading a virtual book in a virtual world do such virtual books need to hold something special, something that makes them worth my time. A real book lets me use my imagination. No 3D engine can compete with this and no artist can tell me what something needs to look like. Neither is a real book bound to reflect the content or the events of a virtual world. Instead, lore becomes an excuse for the limits of the virtual world, it begins to explain it and ends up being trash.

This is my opinion. Skyrim is certainly not boring without these books.

Before anyone says "But the journals...!", I know and I do not mean the journals. They are good. Read my previous comments.

Yeah, I'm much more likely to read journals and notes, than the books on bookshelves.

And you have a right to your opinion which I disagree with heavily.

As heavily as about say... 10 tons. To not want books in a role playing game is just one step further to a brain-numbing type of dumbing down.

Just don`t read them, like you do in real life. Problem solved.

My favorites of all time are:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:A_Dance_in_Fire
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Wolf_Queen
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:2920,_The_Last_Year_of_the_First_Era
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_36_Lessons_of_Vivec

I hold a special place in my heart for a book not seen since Daggerfall:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:A_Tale_of_Kieram

Best of the new ones in Skyrim I think is:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Songs_of_the_Return

There is such a wide variety of types of books, from pure mythos to history to novels, and a lot of them are very well written.
Especially the novels usually have a decent joke or pun at the end, and some of the more expansive ones such as The Wolf Queen are decent literary works with a sound structure and resounding message.
A lot of the depth of a TES game lies in the in-game literature and Im a great fan.

Give me 1g of your 10 tons.

You can get a lot of knowledge 'bout 'em creatures from books 'ike 'Horker attacks' and all 'herbane's bestiary',(like weaknesses and strenghts ), 'Alduin is real' is a fine book 'bout Alduin and Kolb and the dragon I love, it made my childhood come back!
I don't think that ay'll write an other post samtime! (10 internets to who will succeed and find the reference in my post(it's a Skyrim book reference)

OMG PALLA

Awesome book is awesome.

Really, those people who think reading the books is a waste of time are just nuts. Playing a TES game without reading the books is like travelling to the Italian countryside and not trying the wine.

I like the books. Not to derail this too much into criticism, but I wish the in game adventuring/dialogue reflected the writing of some of these books more. The narrative books, especially. Like "Incident at Necrom" or "Night Falls on Sentinel". They're better than many quests.

I had to stop by because some folks are insulting other folks when making their posts. No personal insults are allowed on the forum whether it be a group of members or another member...just leave out the insults because otherwise you will end up with an official warning and a short suspension from the forum.

Reading books in game is optional. Nobody must read them to enjoy the game and some just don't want to for one reason or another. Some people don't read books in real life either. It's an individual player game and reading books isn't required.

I will however say that reading the books might add to your knowledge of lore or of an understanding of the fictional world you are playing in. Some will make you laugh, some will make you ponder or think differently about something in real life. Some are worthless reads. Some will open up a new quest. Some will just amuse you and others might make you wonder about a place in the game and lure you to explore some previously unknown quest.

So if you want to experience those things, read the books. If not, enjoy your game without reading them. It's no skin off of anyone's back if some other person reads them or not.

I have read some of the books, in each case those that have some direct relevance to the current thing I am exploring. I read every single journal I come across, of course. I do admit that I have to read up on my lore, I have barely read any of the major series.