I am playing D.D. for the third time now (warrior,hard) and try to get every thing maxout.Armor with 5 slots,the best weapons and so on.As you all know,items in a chest are most of the time random,so I thought it must be the same for bookcases and bookshelves.As soon as I spoke to Joram I start my investigation in the next room where you see a bookcase with 3 shelves.You must start with the bottom shelve (save before you start) point at the shelve and if there is something in it,open,look and if it's nothing reload.I assure you,it works!Three spellbooks was the result.It will cost you a lot of time and reloads,but it makes your life a bit easier.After I finished all the other houses,the treasure was 10 spellbooks including 2 lightning,so I could deal with the big bosses in the catacombs in order to get good items to sell.You need a lot of magic by using lightning.When I came to Verdistis,I managed to get 21 spellbooks.By the way,there is a room in the catacombs with three bookcases,two of them gave me a spellbook.A warning:don't take the books from George,his attitude drops to -73 and you need him to get your magic for a fair price.You can come back after he is murdered.Maybe this will help the newbees a little.