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Now I'm talking rule books here, not novels. I have lots of subscriptions and the unread stuff is starting to pile up. But I can't seem to stop ordering new books. In fact, I haven't had time to read a novel in years.
So I'm curious: do most folks read them cover to cover like a novel (like I do) or do you spot read them when you need a rule or clarification?
How do you read your Paizo books?
I read the core rulebook cover to cover.
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With my eyeballs, and brain thingy.
When I played PF, I skimmed them. So many of the rules were carry overs from 3.5 that reading everything cover to cover seemed like a waste.
On my phone.
It varies, depending on what it is.
I usually flip through pretty fast first time through, probably not even qualifying as a skim read.
If anything looks cool I'll go back and give it a more in depth read right there.
When I can I will read the rest of it.
So very piecemeal.
Just like anyone else, one page before the other.
Usually, I ignore any setting material because I don't use their setting. My order of reading is classes, archetypes, feats, gear, spells. I will often skip spells.
For books that have extra sections, I will read them through if the topic interests me, but ignore them otherwise. For example, I read the organization section in U Intrigue fully, but completely ignored the spell duel/blights section in U Magic.
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When I get my initial PDFs, I skim through them to get an overview of the book and to pick out particularly-interesting bits. Later, once my hardcopies arrive, I fully read the ones that particularly interest me. Others get sectionally-read as they either draw my attention or are needed for a game-related purpose. I prefer reading hardcopies, but the PDFs are handier for mid-game reference most of the time since they can be control+f searched.
I flip around all over the place. I don't think I've ever read a rulebook cover to cover (I came close with Numenera). At our table, rules aren't very important, so it's more important I know where stuff is and what subsystems are around for possible use rather than mastering the nitty gritty.
Some of the campaign setting books I have read cover to cover, although I generally read them in a more ad hoc way also.
With Adventures, I generally read the summary then skimread the entire thing, then read the appendices pretty thoroughly before going back and reading the whole thing cover-to-cover just before I run it.
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There is far, far, far, far, far too much to keep even a significant portion in your mind these days. I know the contents of the core rulebooks pretty well. I skim the rest. If I apply it, that is when I dig into the options that exist... But usually via pfsrd.
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Cool answers. I kind of figured I was an outlier. My wife often asks me how I can read the books like I do; to her they seem a lot like college textbooks.
I've been struggling to read the Inner Sea Races from cover to cover. I have never been that into races in D&D/Pathfinder; I was always more of a class guy.
But strangely, I feel guilty if I don't read EVERY word when I pick up one of their books. I feel like I have to justify the expense of spending so much money on these books. But like I said, I am like 4 sub shipments behind on my reading, and I worry that she is going ask me to cut down on the number of books that I order. But this is my addiction; I like my backlog.
I know there is no wrong way to read them; but maybe I need to allow myself to skim more....
But strangely, I feel guilty if I don't read EVERY word when I pick up one of their books.
Is it really guilt? To me it rather sounds like compulsion to control. Which is a common thing among GMs (to some degree I am affected, too) but ultimately it roots in fear of failure. And fear is rarely a good advisor.
I guess you will experience some stress if you break your usual behavior patterns. But for your own sake, break them sometimes. People with compulsion to control are afraid of things going horribly wrong once they act differently. So the best medicine is to experience that they do not.
So I try to read only the content I really care about. If my players come up with some other stuff, I know I can dive into it if necessary. And if the player knows his specific field better than I do, so be it.
I do it in several ways, looping until I've read the whole thing cover to cover at least twice. Generally, I start in the index and pick something that sounds interesting, usually a class. I then read that until I get bored or find a rule I don't recognize. If I don't recognize a rule, I'll look it up. Once I've exhausted the index, I'll skim for interesting looking pictures or names of rules. After that, I'll start flipping for random pages. At some point depending on how I find the rules, I'll sit down and do all the feats in one go. At any moment during this, I can jump up and run across the room to get another book to check how an ability I just read would stack with something I remember from elsewhere.
I look at the pictures first. If it looks interesting, I see if there's an entry to accompany it.
In order of priority:
Art, NPC entries, bestiary entries, archetypes, encounters, lore bits, rereading those first parts, then misc. other stuff if it's in there.
Despite playing casters almost exclusively, I never read spell entries.
In fits and starts. I don't have the capacity to absorb and retain information like I once did, so I often have to read and re-read some sections to get the information from them.
It really does depend for me. Inner Sea Faiths was cover to cover, but books like Lost Kingdoms was for relevance or interest.
I read all the lore stuff and I skim through the rules stuff until I see something that looks like it might apply to an idea I have kicking around then I'll stop and read that.
I largely do it piecemeal like most of the other people who have chimed in; new classes/archetypes take priority for me, followed by whatever else strikes my fancy (spells, a new subsystem, etc).
Depends on the book type:
AP's I tend to read through the Bestiary stuff first, followed by the random "expanding Golarion info" article, and then maybe start on the AP. Sometimes I'll read the story, but usually I put it off until the AP is done and then end up forgetting to go back through and read it.
"Heavy Fluff" books I tend to read cover-to-cover.
"Heavy crunch" books I tend to jump around a lot and then will go back and read cover-to-cover to make sure I've not missed anything.
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Usually I quickly flip through ta thing to see where all the nudie pikures are. Oh, I mean, I read 'em for the ARTICULES! REALLY I DO!
Not buyin' it? Well does it count if I get Aunt Mama (she's Church-Goin' Folk, so she knows how ta read good) ta read 'em ta me?
I would read 'em meself, but too many big words cause me to take off mah Peasant Hat to scratch mah noggin'. And then the ravens come and peck out mah brain. (Peasant Hat is a ROLE-PLAYING AID, not a FLAW!)