Just as a quick note, I have noticed some instances where cutscenes/dialog options won't move forward. Pressing the space bar during a conversation will skip it to the next, so ive been able to fix some of the issues that way.
As another side note, any issues I've had with picking up items off the ground (books especially), if you hold Left Alt it will show the book and you can left click to automatically pick it up without needing to bring up the right click menu (read, pick up, examine, etc)
The left alt helps on this book and then you can read it from your inventory at your leisure (or outside this bugging area, atleast)