Section 5 – Books
My Advice, collect them until you get to level 30. If you are at the level up screen for level 30, and you read a bunch of books, and you have topped out everything in the game, and you still have skill points available… you will be stuck in that screen and you cannot advance and you will need to remake your character. If the books are all in your locker you can read them after you hit 30 and it becomes no harm no fowl. You can also keep track of how many of which books you came across, and then when you level up you can keep that in mind, especially if you got the recommended perks and you only need 3 books in each skill to top out, if you have 5 nikola teslas, then you will wanna stop energy weapons at 90 (keeping in mind it will go up with perception and luck) and put the remaining points into something else.
Section 6 – Summary
Plan your character. Start your game. Set your stats (get 9 int). Go get the medicine bobblehead (In vault 101). Goto rivet city, get the int bobblehead. Go get all the skill bobbleheads. Get educated and comprehension. Go get ant might or ant sight whichever you need for whichever perks you want. Use intense training as necessary. Go get the lucky 8 ball. Go get Yew’s Bear Charm. Go get covert ops in Operation Anchorage. Keep silent running and Cyborg’s +10 to sneak/energy weapons in mind as you level (if you plan to use them). Drop the lucky 8 ball before you hit level 30 (and before you get the luck bobblehead) When you hit level 30, Get almost perfect. Go get the remaining bobbleheads. Put books in your locker. Read them at level 30. Go find the remaining books needed to get your skills topped out. Now play the game and enjoy.
Like I said, I recommend doing the scrap metal glitch (http://www.ngook.com/archives/140). Do it right after you get all the skill bobbleheads, and all the quest perks. This will allow you to level to 30 in about 10 minutes through Walter. Then you can do all the quests you want at level 30. The game is a little more interesting at level 30.