The Drunken Lizard Pub

I've been giving this some thought and haven't been able to come up with a satisfactory answer.

Which is the more efficient method of gaining a new skill: by reading a book, or by appropriating skill points in the character screen?

It would seem that the obvious answer is to read a book; adding ...

Any help would be much appreciated; I'm stuck on the quest to eliminate the hive queen. Is there some way I could download the game again (or something) but keep my saved games?

Just discovered that my game crashes whenever I try to enter Whistling Cave; I have never had any other issues with crashing at any point during the game, but whenever I try to enter that particular map, Eschalon will "quit unexpectedly." I'm wondering if the map file for Whistling Cave might ...