The main purpose of books in adom is learning and casting spells.
Learning spells
If you read a spellbook of a spell you don't know, you will attempt to learn that spell. This will take long or not long at all depending on the spell - Light is easy and quick to learn, while Acid Ball certainly isn't.
Obviously, wizards and other spellcasters are better at learning spells then others, so while a wizard will have no trouble reading a spellbook of ice ball, a barbarian may never be able to successfully learn it.
If, for whatever reason, you fail to read the spellbook properly, there may be repercussions. You may become stunned or confused for some turns, you may randomly teleport to somewhere else on the level, you may turn blind temporarily, you may lose a point of Toughness, or, in the worst case, lose the spellbook in an explosion.
Casting spells
Once you have successfully learnt a spell, whenever you try reading a spellbook of that type you will be given two options: learn the spell, or cast the spell from the book. If you attempt to learn it again, there is the same chance as before that you will fail. If you succeed in reading it, your knowledge in the spell will increase, granting you higher spell knowledge, allowing you to cast it from memory more often.
You can also choose to cast from the book. This takes approximately three times longer then casting from memory, and requires three times more power points, but does not decrease your knowledge of the spell. Neither does it, however, increase spell effectivity.
It is possible to receive a low amount of spell knowledge from a wand of wonder or a potion of wonder and use the corresponding spellbook to bookcast the spell forever without ever having successfully read the spellbook even once. This is commonly employed by those classes that would have a hard time succeeding in the reading check, like the Barbarian mentioned above.
Spellbook names
Spellbooks in adom can generally have two possible names. Druids, Paladins and Priests, will cast, and find books of, a "clerical" version of the spell (for example "spellbook of Minor Punishment" instead of "spellbook of Magic Missile). The only difference in this case is the name, as both Magic Missile and Minor Punishment are the same spells.
On this page, spellbooks are refered to by both their arcane and clerical names, for easy cross-reference.
- Note that not all spells have a clerical name. The "Heal" spell, for example, is simply called "Heal" no matter what character type you are.
List of spellbooks
| Name | Clerical name | DL | Weight | Notes |
| Spellbook of acid ball | Spellbook of rain of sorrow | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of acid bolt | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of bless | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of burning hands | Spellbook of baptism of fire | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of calm monster | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of create item | Spellbook of divine favour | ? | 100s | |
| Spellbook of cure critical wounds | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of cure disease | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of cure light wounds | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of cure serious wounds | ? | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of darkness | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of death ray | Spellbook of greater divine touch | 2 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of destroy undead | Spellbook of dispel undead | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of disarm trap | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of earthquake | ? | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of farsight | 2 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of fire bolt | Spellbook of hellish flames | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of fireball | Spellbook of major punishment | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of frost bolt | Spellbook of nether bolt | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of greater identify | Spellbook of greater enlightenment | ? | 100s | |
| Spellbook of heal | 2 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of ice ball | Spellbook of freezing fury | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of identify | Spellbook of enlightenment | 2 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of improved fireball | Spellbook of invoked devastation | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of invisibility | Spellbook of veil of the gods | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of knock | Spellbook of divine key | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of know alignment | 2 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of light | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of lightning ball | Spellbook of heavenly fury | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of lightning bolt | Spellbook of divine wrath | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of magic lock | Spellbook of seal of the spheres | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of magic map | Spellbook of knowledge of the ancients | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of magic missile | Spellbook of minor punishment | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of mystic shovel | Spellbook of divine digger | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of neutralize poison | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of petrification | 2 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of remove curse | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of revelation | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of scare monster | Spellbook of holy awe | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of slow monster | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of slow poison | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of strength of atlas | Spellbook of lordly might | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of stun ray | Spellbook of lesser divine touch | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of summon monsters | 1 | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of teleportation | Spellbook of ethereal bridge | 1 | 100s | |
| Spellbook of web | ? | 100s | ||
| Spellbook of wish | ? | 100s | ||
| Tract of order | ? | 250s | ||
| Tract of balance | ? | 200s | ||
| Tract of chaos | ? | 150s | ||
| The collected works of confucious | 1 | 400s | Gives a random Fortune cookie message when read | |
| The Black tome of Alsophocus | ? | 400s | Artifact; provides corruption and knowledge of a random spell when read |
Castings per read
The number of castings you receive per time you read a spellbook is heavily dependent on your Learning and Literacy, and also is effected by your Concentration, Mana and the B/U/C status of the spellbook in question.
Testing is being performed to determine the exact effect of each of these variables. See Books/Darkness for the first tests made with a spellbook of darkness.