I am wanting to do a no merchants run of skyrim. Where...you guessed it, I don't buy or sell anything. Ever. That means I have to make everything, which is easy enough to do I suppose, if I need potions, enchantments or gear. However, I don't know where else I can get spells other than from merchants. I don't recall ever finding spell books on shelves and the like, other than a few specific cases. Really, I might even go 'no loot' as well. Where I only use what I make. But then spells would be completely off limits.

Also, out of curiosity, has anyone done a "shouts only" run of skyrim before? Where your only method of attacking is via shouts? I have a mod that adds new shouts, It was something I was considering... I have skytweaks so I could make shouts stronger based on number of dragon souls carried and I could alter the shout cool downs to be a wee bit more reasonable if that is my ONLY method of attack.

As far as I know they normally appear in boss chests and mage/necromancer enemies. If you have the DLCs Dragonborn opens accessibility to tons of spells, including the master spells, without having to join the College.

Shouts only is impossible without heavy usage of mods, since I don't think it's viable to have to run away for half a minute every time I use unrelenting force. Which is pretty much the only truly useful offensive-only shout on Legendary.

Well, I can cut the shout times down to almost instant if I want to. I would have to find a good balance myself.