the quest given by Vekel the Man in the theive's guild, to retrieve Arondil's journals, ends with the journals still in my inventory and no reward given. Anyone else?

I also noticed that the highwayman at Valtheim towers who demands 200 gold will take 200 gold from you wether you intimidate her or not.

Same thing happened to me as well. I thought I had missed seeing the reward pop up on the screen. A few minutes later I noticed the journals were still in the inventory. I haven't tried to go back to Vekel yet.

Plus so many other quests send you there - I wish the journals only appeared once Vekel gave you the quest.... I just ignore them and don't pick them up.

But it bothers me to do other quests there for the Thane and not be able to.

Yep, this bug happened to me too. I hope the more replies we add to the forum the quicker this becomes fixed.