Right now I feel that books are retardedly powerful. I sorta feel like maybe there should be a fundamental change to current system. I was thinking that perhaps books should help you gain knowledge. Knowledge would act a bit like experience acts right now, except now be required to gain skill. Reading would convert experience into knowledge. Gain from knowledge would be much faster then without. This would make books still important, but not god mode as they are now. It would make putting points into skills ab it more important also. This would also balance well with some of the carreers suggestions I’m seeing in the other thread. 
The main issue I have with this suggestion, is that high levels in a number of non-combat skills are required for a variety of mid to end game projects: creating or modifying vehicles, installing bionics, hacking labs, hand loading ammunition, etc.
Add to this that the only way to raise most non-combat skills is massive amounts of grinding. Such as making wooden, crossbow bolts, crafting and then disassembling flashlights, adding and removing parts from vehicles, making bandages, etc., and that’s ignoring the the skills that it would be basically impossible to raise without books, such as computers and sewing. And even after you manage to raise your electronics to 12 after making 6000 flashlights, skill rust would eliminate the experience worth of dozens of flashlights every day.
This change would effectively replace reading with massive amounts of un-fun grinding, and would detract immensely from the gameplay in my opinion.
Seconding Vucar. I’ve found Cutting Weapons impractical to raise past 4 with any sort of reliability, and am grateful I capped rust at skill levels. Otherwise, I’d be blowing through XP just to stay put.
No need to make the game any more grindy, thanks.
Nah sayers can take a hike. The idea is to replace the reading aspect, which is too powerful currently, with something else. Obviously you’d have to be smart about your implementation and not make it a grind fest. If you run around swing your sword everywhere, having no idea what you are doing, it would take forever to learn anything above the basics about it. But if you studied a book on Kendo, you’d at least know the basics of swordsmanship. You will mainly be working out the how to apply what you learned. Like I said in the first post, with knowledge in a skill, your skill would advance much faster. Obviously some skills would require some tweaking to allow for this system. Like mechanics having no zero skill level applications that I know of. Who said you should be able to do everything? This would also increase the long term value of starting skills.
And here is where I suggest a few items to assist in learning that is non-bookish but makes sense.
Laptop computers: Run on batteries. User to run various findable software/dvd/cds. There are always how too videos all over the place on the internet. Some exist on dvd and such and some can even be found at your local library. Not to mention in various homes.
Items for practice: Practicing shouyld use exp/knowledge
Shinai (practice sword) Practicing with this would get you to skill level 1.
Beginners Electronics Kit: Practice with this would get you to skill level 2.
BB Gun
Pellet handgun
Airsoft Handgun
Lawnmower: Most shop classes start with small engines.
Practice dummy: First Aid
You skill level gain with knowledge and a practice items/materials should be around that of a book, if not a lil better. The idea is to make it so you actually have to work for your skills instead of holing up at a farm, reading the book, and living off the squirrels that suicide into your barbed wire. I can say this because it’s what I just did in my game. Current skill books make it VERY easy to gain skills. I’m sorry if you want a free ride, I don’t support it.
How is it a “free ride” to unlock higher level crafting recipes?
Faster or not it is still grinding, and more grinding is not something I think Cataclysm needs.
If you consider reading a book in this games current system grinding then I call that very pathetic.
Nah. It’s going off-book that’s grindier than a set of poorly meshed gears.
Cooking skill, for example? I have rust capped at skill level (so my skill% doesn’t go negative/red), and it took most of the XP capacitor and just about every cookable item I had lying around the lab to go from 7 to 8. When you’re madly looking around the place for just one more thing to cook so 7 (98%) doesn’t turn into 7 (0%), that’s pretty frickin’ grindy.
(And I think we badly need a new recipe: Sandwich. 1/6 Bread + 1xCooked (Meat/Veggy), have a Butcher/Combat Knife. As it is, Bread seems pretty underwhelming–at minimum, it should be worth more morale when eaten fresh.)