Books (Skyrim)

*For other uses, see Books.*
**Books** are items that can be acquired in *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim*.

The various books that appear throughout Skyrim can grant quests, increase certain skills, or record locations on the world map. Books vary from simple stories, to letters, recipes, notes, and journals that assist in quests and provide snippets of lore that help players become more familiar with the culture, people, and history of Tamriel.

## Types

There are 820 item codes that correspond to books in *Skyrim*. These can be broken down into the following categories:

* Skill Books: books which will increase a specific skill by one level. There are 91 of these if the *Oghma Infinium* is included.
* Spell Tomes: books which teach a spell and are destroyed once read. There are 93 of these, most of which can be bought from spell vendors.
* Quest Books: books that add a quest to the player's journal. There are 5 of these scattered throughout Skyrim.
* Journals: journals of various characters found throughout Skyrim and Solstheim, giving information about them or what they have been doing. There are 97 of these scattered throughout Skyrim.
* Letters: letters and notes found throughout Skyrim and Solstheim. There are 192 of these scattered throughout Skyrim.
* Recipes: notes that contain potion or poison recipes. There are 28 of these, which can be obtained as loot or from merchants.
* Black Books: books that, if read on Solstheim, will transport the Dragonborn to Hermaeus Mora's realm of Apocrypha. There are 7 of these on Solstheim, which can only be accessed with the *Dragonborn* DLC.
* Lore Books: books that describe historical tales in the form of either folklore, or actual documentation of events in Tamrielic Lore and may be used in a quest. By process of elimination, there are 307 books scattered throughout Skyrim which serve no other purpose than lore.

## Available books

The following is a list of books found in *Skyrim*, *Dawnguard*, Template:Hearthfire and *Dragonborn*. This list does not include any spell tomes, recipes, journals or letters.

## Other types

* Treasure Maps, ten named variants, note form
* Elder Scroll
* Black Books
* Master Illusion Text, four variants
* *Oghma Infinium*
* *Power of the Elements*, five variants, one being a spell tome, what the Master Illusion Texts are converted to at the end of the Illusion Ritual Spell, only obtainable through console
* *Shalidor's Insights*
* Various developer testing books, obtainable only through console, disappear when dropped or placed in a container

## Bugs

1. *Please **reload an old save** to confirm if the bug is still happening.*
2. *If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on.*
3. *Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.*

* Using a spell such as Blizzard can glitch out anything in cases including books, armor, weapons, etc. Any high explosive spell should work (needs more testing, Blizzard tested on PS3). Blizzard doesn't harm non-hostile NPCs making it safe to use in populated areas.
* A spell tome can be copied by placing the book on the bookshelf, then exiting out the bookshelf dialog, then quickly clicking the place the book ends up, then reading the book when it is on the shelf, then exiting. After that, every time one activates the book shelf the book will end up there.
* Gallus's Encoded Journal may get stuck in the inventory as a quest item. To fix this, get caught and go to jail, break out and when the Dragonborn retrieves their items, do not take the journal.
* PC   360   PS3   Bookshelves in any owned house in Skyrim may be inaccessible despite being full of books. None of the books are selectable despite the titles appearing, and the shelves cannot be opened, either. This happens whenever an attempt is made to place more books on a shelf than will fit. For example, if the caption says 10 of 10 books are on the shelf, trying to place eleventh locks the shelf up and all books become inaccessible.
* Any of the Elder Scrolls may get stuck in the inventory as quest items.

## See also

* Books (Dawnguard)
* Books (Dragonborn)
* Skill Book (Skyrim)
* Spell Tome (Skyrim)
* Console Commands (Skyrim)/Books

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