I said this in the steam forums but here is my idea on books:
Books are boring and you dont "get" anything from it. one, or the other, or both for interest and reward, but right now I have no incentive to ever read one again.
I enjoyed Musharib scrap in a next, a toa call out and I was like hey, used him as a guide to take over hrakhamar with my players. Was a fun little easter egg.
But if you compare it to say, Morrowind, we have some problemos. Morrowind is probably the best example of reading stuff that was pretty wild. Reading about dwemer and going into their areas and understanding why it looks like everyone just...vanished...really added to the feeling of the areas.
even carrot on the stick stuff where you read Volo's Guide to Monsters P1-10 and there are maps to areas you have to dig for treasure, little trinkets hes accidentally left like a ring or an amulet, +1 to history & arcana skill checks, etc... that are just little fun things to go do that take you to a cool area you might not otherwise have found.
At this point im mainly annoyed when I accidentally loot one and have to find it to throw it away.
Marking books as {read} as a global modifier (all copies of that book, anywhere, are read) should also be present, same way chests say {empty}.
I feel like companies feel they are being unprofessional by doing like a cheesy bobblin the goblin drawing in a book instead of what an amused DM might tell you what is in there on the spot. I actually like thinking "I wish I had the job of the guy who got to make all these stupid goblin drawings, theyre amazing"
And lore drop stuff is really easy in D&D.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/ there, now everyone can know everything. That and Mr. Rhexx on youtube.
Its cool lore, there is infinite of it, and speaking as a DM, it gives me plot idea, side quests for people. For instance, they went through a town where the whole place was abandoned and looked like it had been put into rows and columns grid and slid around. Later they found out that during the spellplague, portions of abeir and toril got swapped, and they realized portions of this town are from another planet. Cool journal to find. It doesnt even have to do anything, but in the planescape series a big part of the game is finding somewhere weird, sometimes being able to do something with it, but always getting a little "huh, neat!" tidbit from it.
