Baconrath

I think i had stopped after losing a few boss fights worth of progress in FC after I forgot to grab a book thats waaaaay off the beaten path

Is that book critical? Because that's the kind of thing that'd make me go "fuck it, reading's for nerds anyway".

IIRC, in the first game collecting all the books is how you get the ultimate weapon for one of the two main characters. That's my one complaint about these games, they really go overboard with missable shit. "Oh, you didn't walk back way the fuck across the map to where you were an hour ago just for the hell of it? Well, you missed a side-quest! Now it's gone forever, dumbass!"

Unless you're specifically going for a perfect achievements/points run, I wouldn't worry about any of it. I certainly never do on a first playthrough. It's basically impossible to not miss anything without a guide, so I just enjoy the story on my first run and worry about achievements/points on a replay. Although, the 3rd has an achievement for beating the game on nightmare mode. I've heard scary things about Falcom games on nightmare mode...