Do skill books still work the same as they did in F3? I heard someone say that they only last for a short while and though I think that was off I wanted to check before using any.

Magazines only last a short while and books increase skills by 3 points however, they are now much more rare.

There are now two kinds of books: Skill books and skill magazines. The skill books work as they did in FO3, but the skill magazines last only for a short while (but give a larger bonus). They're useful if you need a temporary skill boost for a situation, like a lock being just a little too tough for you to pick.

Edit: I didn't know the books increased skills by 3, then that's different from FO3. Good to know.

There are books and magazines. The magazines give you a temporary 10-point boost to a skill and seem to be fairly common, while the books give you a permanent boost of three points (four with comprehension). However, the books appear to be a lot rarer than they were in FO3 - the Wiki page says there are 51 total in New Vegas, while FO3 had over 300 total.

I just found my first skill book last night, after about 8 hours or so of game time.

I'll have to go back and grab that one. I must've missed it. So far I have a Pugilism Illustrated and a Tales of a Junktown Jerkey Vendor (?) Whatever the barter one is. I don't recall where I found them though.

i found a survival guide near the beggining

I think I'm going to like this system myself. In FO3 it was way too easy to turn your character into a demi-god with 100's in all skills, between all the books and the bobbleheads. Here, we're going to have to really think about where we want to spend those skill points when we level up. Also, you can't just rule out the skill-point only perks any more.

Dang, all I have so far are magazines. Guess I'll hold onto them then.

Personally, I enjoyed how it was in FO3. Then you at least had the option of not using the skill books/bobbleheads. Now I find my skill points are always going to Repair/Lockpick/Science, and I'm struggling to get Guns/Medicine/Speech. Even with dump skills (Energy Weapons, Melee Weapons, Unarmed), I'm still struggling to get what I want. Also, there are so many perks, I now really have to debate what to take. Yes, it leads to more specialized characters, but at the same point, it feels like now I have to focus so much on the important items (Lockpick/Science at least) that other useful skills are completely getting left out. With a 9 Int and the Educated type perk, I'm still only getting about 17 skill points per level. So that's 5 levels to increase my Lockpick/science to the next threshold... and that's leaving 7 skill points for other skills. I can't imagine if my INT was less than 9.

Assuming I split the skill points evenly and gave 8 to each skill, it'd take 4 levels to reach the next threshold, and that'd leave no skill points for anything else. Yes, there are skill magazines, but you can only benefit from 1 at a time, and even then, it'll still take as many levels to raise them a threshold because I'd be planning on using one when needed. Combine that with how early you find things that need higher skills and it becomes a pain.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying the game, but it's rough at times.

Does anybody have the players guide? I'm wondering what the second set of numbers is whenever it lists a skill book or magazine being found. Example: Goodsprings Home: Skill Book: Chinese Army: Spec. Ops. Training Manual [sneak][3/4][1/12].
Now the first number shows the number listed in the guide as findable books in that category. This is book 3 out 4. But what is the second number for? Are there actually 12 available somewhere in the game? Given by people or something. The same goes for magazines where it lists a second number. These seem to be the only things that list two separate numbers.
With magazines you can just find them everywhere. They are loaded up as random drops so you don't really have to worry about collecting them I guess. I found 4 in the Goodsprings mailboxes.