Does this have a limit of how many levels you can gain from checking bookshelves? Like how in Skyrim after you had checked a certain book you wouldnt gain a skill from that book again.

I am just wondering if it makes sense to check every bookshelf possible as you level up, or if it makes sense to wait til later to start spamming them so that you gain levels that are higher up and take longer to obtain

it doesn't seem so- more so, once you check a bookshelf, it seems that after a period of time, it will be a new book with a new chance at gaining a skill. While grinding in a dungeon over the last beta, I gained multiple skills off of checking the same bookshelves (not consistently, mind you) as I was running my route.

Not all bookshelves do anything. I'd certainly click every bookshelf as I'm planning on doing. I can't imagine that clicking a book in a low level area would give you greater rewards at higher level anymore than killing a low level mob would.

You gain the relevant skill point the first time (and only the first time) that you read a particular book that grants it, much like in the single player games. The only difference in this case is that you can't see what's on any particular shelf ahead of time.

The shelves do respawn (which can result in you finding a different book) every now and then, but while this means it can be useful to re-use shelves in an area you visited a while ago, it doesn't happen enough to make it useful to stand there clicking one shelf over and over. (The possible books on a given shelf seemed to vary with the area as well, so you will need to wander around to get them all.)

good knowledge! thank you- I didn't think about only gaining a skill off of the "same" book- though- that makes sense! I guess the question then is- how many books are available of each skill?

I have no idea how many there actually are, although I'd guess that there are about as many as in the single player games, so probably in the neighborhood of 4-6 each. There are many new books in the game though, and that might mean that there are a greater number per skill.

Thanks for the replies still confused tho. So if this is correct , say there is a max amount of times you can gain a level from checking a shelf, per skill. So per say, there is 5 possible times you can gain a Blacksmithing level from a shelf. Say you spam shelfs while you level from 0-25, and you gain Blacksmithing 1-5. But what if you checked no shelves from 0-25, and in that time you level Blacksmithing to 30, and alot of your other skills would be say 30 then too. And Then you started spamming shelves, so you got Blacksmithing 30-35 , which is alot more EXP gained then if you did it 0-5.

Yeah I get I am probably overthinking this, but do you see my point?

Yes, all other things being equal, waiting to read books till you are higher level will get you more benefit. in that it will be harder to go from 40 to 41 than it would be to go from 3 to 4. However, as a higher level character, you will have lots more ability to up your skills than you would at lower level. For example, when I was trying to get my blacksmithing up to lv 2, so I could spend a point on keen eye, I spent all my gold buying the racial crafting item at 15gp each. At higher level I assume that I would be able to buy hundreds of 15gp items if I needed to. My guess is that in the long run it balances out.

Besides if you wait until later levels, with so many books there is no guarantee that you will find the books you need when you need them.

I didn't know they respawned. That's excellent news, and quite useful, too. Kinda gives a player reason to come back through an area they've already visited.