The book is A4 formatted (which as the Readme points out may pose some problems for American letter size printers) and 85 pages long not including the cover, a nice substantial size for a product of this nature. What's more I was very pleased to find it is very neatly laid out. A good, clean double-column layout makes for an easy read even on a computer screen, while packing plenty of information onto each page as well. It seems a shame that most printers, incapable of printing to the very edges of the paper that they are, will crop off some of the lovely outer page border and a little of the page number surround, although thankfully these are only artistic touches and there is a printer-friendly version of the document without these features. The only thing I found mildly distracting is the way in which new chapters sometimes crop up in the middle of a page rather than at the head of a new one. Still it's not exactly a cardinal sin of layout, just something I found a little odd. At least no space has been wasted. I hate opening a book to find out that a number of the pages are half empty because there wasn't enough text to fill a page.

Artwork is sparse but of a high quality, and is appropriate to the text around it. Mind you, given the narrow field that the book works within, any picture containing a book would fit the bill. The important thing is that it is more than just a means of filling space. The pictures are not only pleasant to look at, but most also seem to tell a story, something I always think of as a sign of good art. The only illustrations I was not fond of were the maps, some of which were incredibly garish, bright orange apparently being the order of the day for your average fantasy library. If you need a floor map of a library for some reason, they are well laid-out and reasonably clear. My main doubt is in how often such maps will be useful. Still it's a nice extra feature to have, and they could as easily be used as a town hall or other civic building just by stripping out the bookcases. The PDF also has nice, easy to read tables (and plenty of them!) and scattered around a few quotes from (presumably) fictitious characters to illustrate the text. I found the quotes a little bland to be honest, but they aren't awful and they aren't invasive.

The usual legal fluff in the front of the book is thankfully only a page in size including all the credits - OGL and D20 pdf creators take note please - with the bulk of it in the back where it can easily be excluded from printing. After that you're into the real substance of the book. It starts off with a standard 'how to use this book' page. Now I am not a big fan of this practice. As far as I'm concerned the contents page should say it all. I'm not convinced that detailed descriptions of what is in each chapter are necessary, especially when the first paragraph of those chapters says exactly the same thing in slightly different wording.

Things kick off much better when the first chapter begins by presenting a run down of various historical and imaginary methods of producing books, from the common stitched binding to more exotic and primitive forms of the written word such as the bark accordion book. Yes, these were real in some primitive cultures, though it is doubtful that anyone carries on the practice today. No, I'm not telling you what one of those is you'll have to buy the PDF. Most of the data presented in this chapter is factual and accurate (though sometimes brief) and that which isn't can be easily disseminated. I would have liked to see notes on the real-life origins of those historically based, and a little more information than a simple description, but by and by this chapter does what it sets out to do. The game mechanics first get a serious airing in the second chapter, which discusses how characters can make use of writing, from simple journals to publishing your own books in-game. There are plenty of simple tables outlining ways of rolling the dice to produce a good book, not to mention getting it published, but I did begin to wonder at this point how much of this will actually be used. It's interesting, not only from a role-playing aspect but also for real-world publishers, but I don't see it getting used very often in-game. Still, better that something be interesting with negligible use than be boring and utterly useless. In any case these rules clearly belong in a comprehensive document about books, so on the whole I'm glad they are there. I just won't ever need to use them.

Chapter Three nearly blinded me. It concerns the many places to purchase or borrow books from, and is where you'll find the bright orange library. Unfortunately, for those of you without colour printers, these maps are not rendered in black and white in the printer friendly version. I haven't tried printing in B&W (my printer messed up hideously and printed it in blue - I think I need a new one) but I'd predict that the maps would be very hard to read since the bright orange would likely become very dark. I was also surprised that, although the library is quite elaborately mapped, there is no mention of where particular subjects are kept. There is a table for randomly generating subject matter for a bookcase picked at random, and it would have been the work of a few minutes to number a few bookcases to correspond to that table. Oh well, probably not the most important detail.

Much of the book is squarely aimed at helping the GM insert books into a highly literate campaign. Chapter 4 however is definitely for the players, containing a few new book-related feats and skills. One or two of these are actually genuinely useful, and several others, while not initially great, do encourage players and GM's to make use of the other rules and guidelines contained within the book. Case in Point, the Charismatic Composition feat actually makes it worth the characters' while becoming a well-known author within the game world. Most of the feats aren't going to compete with the average 'kill things' type of feat for popularity, but in a more story and interaction based game they might turn out to be quite useful. Despite this though, they are well-balanced and genuinely worth a look, especially for bards and people of that ilk. Sadly the new skills aren't nearly so interesting, but they do serve their purpose in outlining the kind of craft skills necessary to the production of a good book, along with tables of appropriate Check DC's for various activities which are always an absolute godsend for the GM in a hurry.

The book also contains a couple of prestige classes. Now, perhaps I'm being a touch cynical here but I really can't think why anyone would wish to take a prestige class that amounts to being a librarian, except maybe for comedic value. Yeah, Conan the Librarian, that kind of thing. Mostly these prestige classes play on the book-based feats included in the manual (which are more useful than they might sound in the right kind of game) but, while they aren't bad considering the subject matter they are associated with, I can't see them being top of anyone's 'must have' list. It almost gives one the impression that they have been included because every third party D20 supplement HAS to have at least one new character or prestige class. There is one exception to this however. You'll soon spot which one. Should you choose to play something a little different - if not particularly dramatic - then they may prove briefly amusing. Herein we have...

the Archivist : a power-librarian optimised towards research tasks, but with little other utility. Great for finding specific information through research (which can of course be very useful in some games) but not much cop at anything else.

the Bookburner : kind of like a magical Mary Whitehouse or Thomas Bowdler. An obvious counterfoil for the Archivist. This is a typical 'glue in appropriate magical abilities' type character class. Nothing particularly new or special, although I do find their ability to use books as explosive weapons mildly amusing.

the Counterfieter : As one might expect, a master of forgery. For some reason the counterfieter also gains access to a small spell list, keyed towards similarly roguish activities. And sneak attack. Apart from the obvious link with the rogue class, I've no idea why a forger ought to obtain this. Surely a forger with that kind of leaning would already have the ability from the Rogue class?

the Legend Crafter : a power-bard based on story-telling rather than the more usual music. There's another bunch of abilities glued in, pretty much all of which duplicate existing spell effects, and all of them usable once per day. Not a bad class, but very bland and with few truly new ideas.

the Rune Warrior : Did you spot it? Yes, something for the hack-and-slash brigade at last! This prestige class almost makes up for the other rather lacklustre and questionable ones. The Rune Warrior is, as you will probably have guessed, a fighter with magical runes carved or tattooed into his or her body. There's a nice selection of lesser and greater runes to choose from as you raise in level, ranging from attribute bonuses to more esoteric abilities such as the ability to add a fire or shock effect to any weapon wielded.

The last few chapters are little gems, and worth buying the PDF for by themselves. There are over 40 spells in here, some of them a little pointless but with several real beauties tucked away as well. Some of them are just plain silly - who needs a spell to create an index for a book? Why bother including a spell (albeit level 0) for turning the pages of a book? - but then there are a few (Scream, Exacting Copy) that are both interesting and very useful indeed in the right circumstances. The following chapters on new magical items and tomes are likewise very nicely realised with some lovely little ideas. Both chapters are fully tabulated with costs and percentage changes of discovery. There's even a small chapter containing a few deities directly linked to literacy. I rather liked the illustrations of their various holy symbols, and they were adequately documented at least. The bestiary is also quite amusing, and I was particularly enamoured with the Print Golem.

Conclusions: a very professionally laid-out book with quality artwork and a plethora of tables. Good comprehensive content, well balanced and well written. The only major criticism is that much of the content is of only passing use to the average adventuring group, and some of it could have been dealt with in greater depth. On the other hand, if you really need a definitive work on literacy in a D20 setting, there isn't much competition.

Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.