In The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, players occasionally come across books that they can read. One player has made it his mission to read all 337 books that relate to the lore. His conclusion: Don’t do it.
How did he do it? A player read the 337 books, which consist of novels or stories that expand the lore of the game. Overall, Skyrim has more than 820 written works (via The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages), but the player excluded diaries and notes that had nothing to do with Skyrim’s mythology.
Only the 337 books he read provide an insight into the culture and history of the game. They convey information about various peoples and factions that inhabit Tamriel. They do so in many different forms, such as short stories about powerful artifacts or the politics of the continent.
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Some of the books from Skyrim are worth it
To evaluate the written works, the player categorized them into several categories:
- Historical: Mostly biographies, he found most of them very boring
- Instructions, mostly recipes or guides for dishes or equipment
- Good Fiction: the only books he enjoyed
- Academic: Reminded him of college
- Mythical: Differ very little in content from the historical ones, but are more exciting
- Dramatic: Plays and poems
- Eh: All the books he couldn’t categorize anywhere else
In the Good Fiction category, he could even name his top 5 that he enjoyed. For him, all Skyrim players should at least have read these titles if they are interested in the lore. The video made for Polygon can be watched here:
How long were the books? The 337 books he read contained more than 316,000 words. This makes the books about as long as the second part of A Song of Ice and Fire, the basis for the popular series Game of Thrones.
Should one do this? In principle, the player cannot recommend looking at all 337 books. He can only recommend his top 5 of Good Fiction. But players who are more interested in the traditions and backgrounds of the game might still enjoy it.
So, the player’s conclusion is that he read the books for other fans so they wouldn’t have to do it. Luckily, he didn’t set out to read the remaining books that have nothing to do with the lore. Otherwise, there would likely be more volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, at least in terms of length.
This example is just one of many where players spend a lot of time in Skyrim to achieve a specific goal. Another fan even took 13 years to implement his plan: Player reaches the highest level in Skyrim 13 years after release by casting the same spell for 43 hours
