I'm a bit of a skill book hunter in 3, so I was wondering how they worked in 1 & 2...

It says in the Wiki that they're useless after 91% in each skill, and that they're tough to find early. So would it be tough to do a skill book hunter-type character? Or are they just a nice thing to come across naturally to boost your skills if they're not already too high?

Pretty much the latter. It's not like FO3 where there's kind of a set amount placed in specific areas - it's more of just another type of loot. (And yeah - after a certain level they stop adding to your skills.) They can be pretty useful, but I wouldn't recommend building a character around it or anything.

There's even a couple shops (and I think a Librarian) that will sell you large amounts (and restock every couple of days) so you can up some of your skills pretty easily going that route.

But it's not so much like they're scattered around for you find - I wouldn't recommend setting yourself a goal of finding all of them (since you really can't, as far as I know.)

Yes in Fallout 1 there's a librarian in The Hub who restocks Big Book of Science, Dean's Electronics, Medecine, Scout's Handbook and Guns n' Bullets.
They are useful when you have money to waste on and you are very low on those skills.. it's especially useful for the First Aid skill.

As for Fallout 2... I believe there's one in Vault City.

books are NOT for all skills in Fo1 & 2... only for small guns, science, first aid, repair, outdoorsman .. and yeah, that's pretty much it. One more unique for energy weapons in Fo2.

You can get more from them than 91% (if you read REALLY drunk and suffering from drugs use) but you still won't get much over 112% I guess? Over 120% on easy. They're great to boost science & first aid & outdoorsman & repair (skills no sane being would put skillpoint into) and you will be pretty much buying them (although there are some lying around).. miss stapleton in hub has unlimited supply in Fo1 and for Fo2 there's a lot of merchants (Vault City & SF mostly)

Also, kinda OT, but it's my thread, so.. How high do you usually raise your skills before stopping? Or do you stop? Since in 3 you can only go to 100, but 3x that in 1 & 2!

it's just 200 in Fo1 and there's also no penalty when putting points to higher level skills (one skillpoint always raises the skill by 1 or 2 in case of a tag skill)

raise the skills you need for your character - usuallly small, big & energy weaps are quite enough ... 200 is no problem in Fo1, a big problem in Fo2 ... but any skill over 120 will give you pretty decent results..

What do you mean it's a big problem in 2?

Well, there is that one book that Father Tully has that is for all skills.... (but you have to beat the game first to get it).

The skill point cost increases by 1 for every 25% or so after 100%. It's really not a big deal because there's almost no reason to raise any skills over 100%.

I disagree there... To be truly effective, you need your combat skills above 100% due to the huge number of potential negative modifiers.... Especially if you want to do called shots.

You also cant get SkyNet with the best brain with only 100% science.

Indeed, you need a Science skill of 124% to get the best brain I think. And especially Unarmed and Melee need to be higher than 100% to be effective against the tougher enemies. 150% is usually more than enough though.