If that would be true, than you wouldn't have a bug.
Whoa. Not presumptuous at all to accuse someone of lying because their bug deviates from the one you know.
I have the same BUG. I never read the book with my PC either.
I picked up the book (and crystal) with both Gale & Astarion in my party, and the option to give it to Astarion is the only one that comes up besides reading it myself or destroying it. I have created a new game, and have the same situation. Perhaps it's related to a conversation that I haven't triggered at some point? In both playthroughs my relationships with both are largely the same; what's weird is that my relationship with Gale is better than that with Astarion.
In one attempt, I eventually tried putting the book in Gale's inventory and reading it *as* Gale, but it didn't progress the way the Gale option is supposed to do either (based on cutscenes and playthroughs I've seen on youtube), it plays out similar to the way the PC reading the book does with multiple saving throws
Edit:
I just went back to replay this portion of my save to see how it plays out post patch 3, and now Gale gets Forbidden Knowledge reward for reading the book. But again, this is playing out as though Gale is the PC, rather than playing out with Gale reading the book as a henchman. The next time he absorbs an artifact, it continues to fail to sate the hunger.
