If playing on PC you can use the console to set your skills to whatever you want. Read the book if you want to read the story and if you don't want the skillpoint then adjust your skill back down by 1.

I don't know the command, you got to look it up. Google

No I don't avoid books. Someone went to a lot of trouble writing them. I can haz skill boost?

I just wish there was some way to pick up books without reading them. That way I could role-play an illiterate looter.
(Plus, I could stock-pile all those skill books for when my skill gets up to 80+ and become really hard to raise.)