We should have audiobooks recorded in cd’s.
Put the cd on the stereo, do something else and learn something new.
For it to be realistic, only low level skills will be learned in this way, and it should be slower than reading, but its a nice alternative.
it will also add some more cd’s in the game 
PS. Advanced stereo systems could play audiobooks stored in USB flash drives with… stuff. (not many or high skills, but some rare recipes)
PPS. This leads me to think that also laptops/pda’s could be used for learning with the proper material in USB format.
Some books could be removed/nerfed and their utility replaced with USB software, making it harder to collect and read’em all in book format.