Adventure games with a lot of books, notes, etc., to read

[Coyote]

Thirding the recommendation for Zork Nemesis. Great atmosphere, interesting puzzles (from what I remember, it's been a long time), and some excellent ambient music that fits the areas where it's played to a tee.

Try both Schizm games, although I highly recommend you to prepare a notebook on the side because they have arguably some of the most contrived puzzles ever put into video games. Also, check out Sentinel: Descendants in Time. There are also some Egyptian themed games that were pretty decent, but I can't remember their titles right now.

If you manage to get Schizm running on Windows 7 without any issues (like animations not working, only 10 percent of the screen showing up, etc.), please let me know how. I'm playing it right now on my XP laptop, but it's old and has lots of problems that make it kind of a pain to use. Being such an obscure game, everywhere I've asked about it I've gotten no responses aside from a few people saying they had the same problems.

 

[Sceptic]

Sometimes?

Ah come on, Return To Zork was a terrible Zork as well. I can forgive Nemesis for at least being such a good game in its own right.

 

[SCO]

Varicella is a great recommendation.

 

[argan]

There is this somewhat recent game that would perfectly fit your requirements I think. It's Lovecraft-themed, Myst-like and with a lot of stuff to read, with puzzles right into the stuff you read (that is you need to find clues in them by underlining the correct lines). Didn't play much of it, though, and can't remember right now how it's called. Will search for it, but maybe someone else knows what I'm talking about.

Darkness Within and Darkness Within 2. And yeah. These would also fit.

I just started playing this. An hour into it now, and it has a really good atmosphere.

 

[argan]

Another one; I haven't played it myself but from what I've read and heard it's supposed to contain a lot of accurate information about the roman empire - S.P.Q.R. A point-and-click adventure game.

 

[Guido Fawkes]

Dracula: Path of the Dragon. Best in the series, just make sure you get the original release and not the popamole "light puzzle" version they released later.

I would mention Azrael's Tear, but I remember you following the LP and I made all the notes avaiable in it.

 

[agentorange]

Dracula: Path of the Dragon. Best in the series, just make sure you get the original release and not the popamole "light puzzle" version they released later.

I would mention Azrael's Tear, but I remember you following the LP and I made all the notes avaiable in it.

Should one play through the first two before the third?

 

[Guido Fawkes]

Dracula: Path of the Dragon. Best in the series, just make sure you get the original release and not the popamole "light puzzle" version they released later.

I would mention Azrael's Tear, but I remember you following the LP and I made all the notes avaiable in it.

Should one play through the first two before the third?

Not necessary at all, specially if you know Dracula's story and setting(which I assume you do. The first two games follow the book somewhat closely).