Should I keep all books in Skyrim?

As an avid library builder in Bethesda games like Skyrim, I totally understand the appeal of keeping every book you come across to pile high on shelves and clutter desks with pages upon pages of glorious lore.

However, from a practical standpoint for both power gaming and reducing risk of crashes, holding onto every single book is often unnecessary and risky. Throughout this guide for book lovers everywhere, I provide tips on what books to keep, sell, or store for displaying based on their gameplay purpose.

Reading Books Provides Temporary Skill Increases

The most vital gameplay function of books in Skyrim is for leveling skills faster early on. Both skill books and regular books provide a permanent boost to their governing skill when read for the first time.

However, the amount they increase skills by depends on both the skill‘s current level and the book‘s quality:

According to consensus across various Reddit threads and forums, the sweet spot seems to be saving skill books until skills reach around level 40 or 50. This maximizes the power spike they provide before their bonuses taper off at higher levels.

Quest Books Should be Kept if Unfinished

Skyrim scattered unusual books across its world, several relating to quests like those found in dragon lairs or the Black Books in Solstheim.

These function as quest items so cannot be dropped or sold, at least until their accompanying storyline is complete.

The most notable example are the Black Books needed to defeat Miraak in the Dragonborn DLC. Be sure to carefully read any odd texts found in ancient dungeons or sites of power!

Favorite Books Can Be Displayed in Player Homes

Hearthfire homes allow the most customization for showcasing your library, with entire wings devoted to book storage. While shelves in vanilla homes have limited capacity, several mods like Unlimited Bookshelves remove item display restrictions.

For the most impressive libraries, I recommend collecting full series on specific topics. Some good targets are:

• The Wolf Queen biography (Full set: 9 Books)
• The 36 Lessons of Vivec (Full set: 36 Books)
• The Alduin/King Olaf controversy (5 Books)
• Magic schools such as The Black Arts on Trial (6 books)

Mix in individual rare books like Fall from Glory or 16 Accord of Madness scattered across booksellers for extra gems!

Abundant and Read Books Can be Safely Sold

The most commonbook genre found in the wild or shops is skill books, often with many duplicate copies across holds. Since most provide only a temporary one-time boost, selling extra copies once read is a wise plan.

Sort books in your inventory by value when visiting merchants and offload the most expensive first.

If you prefer not to fast travel, cities like Whiterun often have two book merchants (Belethor & Farengar) so dumps can be made locally.

Storing excess books not on display is also an option, but carries risk…

Beware Item Limits When Storing Books!

Unfortunately, Skyrim is infamously sensitive to exceeding exterior cell object limits. Having over ~8400 items in a given cell can destabilize saves or risk crashes.

This is most common with decorating follower homes which remain loaded even when you aren‘t there. However, it can also occur in overflowing custom homes with each wing or basement counting as a separate cell.

My recommendation if you wish to keep ALL the books is to store excess in easily accessible containers NEAR display areas instead of piling beyond what your shelves can neatly fit. That wat you can swap out books at will without crossing the dreaded object cap!

So in summary, while keeping books in Skyrim can be hugely rewarding, be selective in what you collect and mindful of performance. Prioritize unread skill books and quest items. Show off rare collections in your library. And sell abundant copies to avoid over-clutter! Let me know if you have any other book hoarding tips in the comments!