What does this do?

I haven't seen any books or such things give xp at all.

You've just wook it out my mouth. Interesting too.

Looks like this skill is broken.

Maybe they give XP once you have the skill?
Or does the description say "Give MORE XP when reading books"

Says gives more, do you not own the game?

Good idea, I tested the former question. No books, audio recordings or anything like that gives any xp.

its broken :(

Yes, I own the game, but I didn't have the game open when I asked the question.
You don't have to be a dick about it.

Was not my intention, sorry.

you'll have to do lots of exploring off the beaten path. there are books and other sccraps of papers in the ruined houses. I think all that counts. they are also worth it to loot for selling things. I stop by everyone I see on the road.

The skill seems to be a leftover from earlier builds. As the system works right now, books only provide lore snippets or similar information, not XP. The skill is useless; several others are borderline useless, but this one in particular should be removed.

Patch notes for Patch 1.0.2846.0 say that the Bookworm skill now gives xp for reading, and even a little xp for reading notes without the bookworm skill. Haven't tried it myself.

Edit: just tested it. Without the bookworm skill you get 10xp for reading small things like notes and 20xp for larger items like books and research reports. With the bookworm skill, you get 25xp for reading notes and 50xp for larger items. No xp for looking at photos!

Unfortunetly the fix seems to only fix it for people who started the game prior to that patch fixing it. It looks like new games that started after that patch still have the problem of not getting XP for the reading material. I made a new thread about it, hopefully to get their attention.