#originally the book thief was here but i've since been informed its not super great rep-wise so i replaced it with CTTA

[elderscrollsconceptart]

I've been playing Skyrim lately and have been having a lot of fun reading the lore books. Do we know which authors wrote which in-game books?

So quite a few people from what I understand, but two standout names are Ted Peterson and Michael Kirkbride as being writers who wrote a large % of the in-game books.

Alot of the books in Skyrim are actually carry overs from books you can find in Oblivion and Morrowind which is where Kirkbride and Peterson did most of their writing

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Ted Peterson wrote this for an interview in 2005 regarding what books he wrote for TES III:

"Just for Morrowind? Looking at the Imperial Library listings:

The Ancient Tales of the Dwemer; Fragment: On Artaeum; Mysticism, The Unfathomable Voyage; Notes on Racial Phylogeny; On Oblivion; The Old Ways; Origin of the Mages Guild; An Overview of Gods and Worship; Response to Bero’s Speech; The Wild Elves; 2920; Biography of the Wolf Queen; Brief History of the Empire; Dance in Fire; The Firsthold Revolt; Galerion the Mystic; A Game At Dinner; How Orsinium Passed to the Orcs; The Madness of Pelagius; The Pig Children; The Wolf Queen; The Armorers’ Challenge; The Axe Man; The Black Arrow; Bone; Breathing Water; The Cake and the Diamond; Chance’s Folly; Feyfolken; The Final Lesson; The Four Suitors of Benitah; The Gold Ribbon of Merit; Hallgerd’s Tale; A Hypothetical Treachery; Ice and Chitin; Incident in Necrom; Last Scabbard of Akrash; The Locked Room; Marksmanship Lesson; Master Zoaraym’s Tale; The Mirror; The Mystery of Princess Talara; Night Falls on Sentinel; Palla; The Poison Song; Realizations of Acrobacy; The Rear Guard; Silence; Smuggler’s Island; Surfeit of Thieves; The Third Door; Trap; Vernaccus and Bourlor; Withershins; The Wraith’s Wedding Dowry; The Death Blow of Abernanit; The Horror of Castle Xyr; A Less Rude Song; Lord Jornibret’s Last Dance; Cherim’s Heart of Anequina; Invocation of Azura; The Charwich-Koniinge Letters; The Buying Game… I think that’s it…"

And since Peterson worked on Daggerfall he wrote books for that game as well:

"I edited all of them [the books] in Daggerfall, but the ones that I wrote completely (and some of these are in Morrowind too):

Galerion the Mystic; The Madness of Pelagius; Ius, Animal God (regrettably); The Asylum Ball; A History of Daggerfall; Brief History of the Empire; The Fall of the Usurper; A Dubious Tale of the Crystal Tower; Banker’s Bet; Healer’s Tale; Jokes; Rude Song; The Arrowshot Woman; A Scholar’s Guide to Nymphs; An Overview of Gods and Worship; Broken Diamonds; Confessions of a Thief; Etiquette with Rulers; Fragment: On Artaeum; Ghraewaj; Holidays of the Iliac Bay; Invocation of Azura; Legal Basics; Mysticism; On Oblivion; On Lycanthropy; Origin of the Mages Guild; Special Flora of Tamriel; The Alik’r; The Brothers of Darkness; The Faerie; The Old Ways; The Wild Elves; Vampires of the Iliac Bay; Wabbajack; The Pig Children; The War of Betony by Newgate; The War of Betony by Fav’te; Wayrest, Jewel of the Bay."

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Skyrim has something like 307 books but the VAST majority are from previous TES games.

If you wanna learn more, the Imperial Library website is a GREAT resource for both

A. Readings the books online

and

B. Learning the IRL author information

Here is a great example:

https://www.imperial-library.info/content/real-barenziah

This Imperial Library article has both the full book text AND lists the IRL author as. Marilyn Wasserman.

I'd super recommend you check out the Imperial Library website. Its great!

[tobias-fell]

sad books to read bc... idk. you want to cry or something

I do not understand why people like reading sad books, as you can tell, despite being someone who likes to read sad books! Well... emotional may be more accurate here, than sad. Some of these books aren't sad but are definitely emotional.

Anyway. Onward!

They Both Die at The End by Adam Silvera. I was crying at midnight because of this one </3 it follows two boys who find out they're going to die in the next 24 hours, and the choices and relationships they form in the meantime.

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas. This one is more in the "emotional" category; it deals with trauma and mental illness. A peter pan retelling where Wendy was the only one out of her siblings to survive being taken into the Never Woods, and now, kids are being taken again.

A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews. I've read this twice and cried both times. A genderbent contemporary Cinderella retelling about a young pianist desperate to be perfect, and his friendship/romance with a girl that makes him happy. (TW: abuse.)

The [Un]Popular Vote by Jasper Sanchez. Full disclosure, I don't think this one is supposed to be sad, it just was for me for personal reasons. A stealth trans guy runs for class president to help the other queer kids in his school, but is hit with many obstacles on the way.

Can't Take That Away by Steven Salvatore. Again more emotional and probably sad for personal reasons, but I nearly cried, so... onto the list it goes. A genderqueer teen navigates life and love in their queerphobic and stifling school environment.