Read a tome and Synthesis choice

[MEATSHED]

Read a tome seems like a very fun feat but it appears that shooting star is the only synthesis that can actually use it. Slide casting, even if you are unarmed, requires your other hand to be free and Sustaining Steel requires a two-handed weapon. Am I missing something about them?

[Ventnor]

It can be used if you're a slide caster who focuses on using unarmed attacks rather than one-handed weapons (just have the book in one hand and leave the other empty), but I do agree that it feels like you should be able to pull off a "book-and-blade" character with it and you can't really do that right now.

[Milo v3]

Raise Book should get a line which states that the hand counts as free for the purpose of synthesises and magus feats. So much of magus wants you to have a hand free.

[Inquisitive Tiefling]

In full agreement that Raise a Tome should fulfill the conditions of otherwise having a hand free for your other abilities. As it stands, currently none of the Syntheses can actually make use of it. Even Shooting Star needs to have both hands free if it wants to shoot or reload.

[Throne]

It's a bad joke of a feat. Just cast Shield.

[Reticent]

Look, I know this is a fantasy game, but-

As a life-long reader who is old enough to have read more paper books than digital ones, who dreads moving because packed boxes of books are heavy, and who worked in a book store for several years:

If you are holding a book in one hand and you try to parry with it, your BEST case scenario is that you aren't going to be holding on the that book any more. And it likely isn't going to be in much shape to ever be read again afterwards either.