Pre-War book (Fallout 3)

For an overview of pre-War books appearing in the Fallout series of games, see pre-War book.

Fallout 3 miscellaneous item
Pre-War book
Icon
Icon
Value	5 (rare blue) 1 (others)
Value	5 (rare blue) 1 (others)
Weight	1
Weight	1
Uses	Rock-It Launcher ammunition
Quests	Yearning for Learning
Form ID	000943F2 (rare blue) 000C5D24

 

A pre-War book is a book that has not been destroyed, burned, or otherwise rendered unreadable. It is a fairly rare miscellaneous item.

Characteristics

Pre-War books in the Capital Wasteland come in two different versions, green and rare blue. Aside from use as Rock-It Launcher ammunition, the green books are desired by the Brotherhood of Steel. Specifically, the Brotherhood Scribe Yearling, located within the Arlington Library, who will reward you with 10 XP and 100 bottle caps per book for contributing these to their archives.

Variants

• Rare blue
• Green

Locations

G.E.C.K. shows that there are 110 pre-War books ("BookGeneric01") in the game, more are added with add-ons. The links below often tell you where to find them:

Location	Amount	Description
Alexandria Arms	1	1 in the large room upstairs, atop an L-shaped counter along the northern wall of the room. The room is east from the entrance through a set of double doors.
Arlington Library	10	3 in the Lobby, 5 in the Children's Wing, and 2 in the media archives.
Anchorage Memorial	3	3 in the utility room.
Bethesda ruins	2	Only room on the second floor of the Bethesda Offices West, on top of the filing cabinets to the west.
Broadcast tower KT8	2	In the room with the computer terminals.
Calverton	1	In a house with a scavenger and his dog, far east of the main town area. The house can be found by following the power lines east past the aforementioned truck, a billboard, and a series of small shacks. It's just before reaching a large power pylon. The book is on a table to the right of a couch under a small scorched book, and it must be stolen.
Charnel House	2	NW in a mined ruined house with sandbags, occupied by a scavenger.
Chryslus Building	1	Room above the building basement doorway
Cliffside cavern	1	Towards the northwest chamber inside of a tent on a small round table. You will also find a mini nuke in the same tent. When you see the raider with the missile launcher you'll know you're in the right place.
Clifftop shacks	1	In the abandoned shack east of the bridge.
Dupont Circle	1	On a bookcase in an abandoned house guarded by raiders. Northwest of Dupont East and south of Dupont Northeast.
Farragut West station	3	Inside an Average locked storeroom near the Tenleytown/Friendship station exit.
Fort Constantine	3	2 in CO Quarters, 1 in the Launch Control Bunker.
Franklin Metro utility	3	2 in the upstairs part of the first room (you have to go through the whole level to get there). 1 in Falls Church/Mason Dst Metro inside the diner on the upper right corner table.
Germantown Police HQ	1	In the cell block next to the computer where Red is locked up.
Hubris Comics	2	1 in the Publishing, 1 in Printing.
Lighthouse	3	3 can be found on the same desk in a side room of the corridor in Professor Calvert's Lab. Only added with the Point Lookout add-on.
L.O.B. Enterprises	2	East wing
Mama Dolce's	2	One is in the food distribution area, on an upper level next to a terminal. The second book can be found on/under a small table in the upper level in the southeast portion of the processed foods area.
Megaton	4	Inside Billy Creel's house (must be stolen).
Minefield	9	Inside the houses.
National Guard depot	6	2 in the entrance zone, 1 in the Training Wing, and 3 more in the Depot Offices.
Oasis	1	After entering the Sunken Chambers, walk until you can turn left, do so, and continue forward until you reach a table with a blue trunk on the ground to the right. The book in on the top of the trunk next to a box of darts.
Our Lady of Hope Hospital	1	On the western curved counter in the large waiting room area.
Paradise Falls	1	Slave house, on a table.
Pylon shack	1	On the northeastern pylon footing.
Republic of Dave	2	In the Museum of Dave, must be stolen.
RobCo facility	3	One in the shelves behind reception desk, one around the computers in the control room (near the Big Book of Science), and one in the mainframe room.
Roosevelt Academy	3	1 in the Headmaster's Office on a desk. 1 in the northern room of Roosevelt Arts and Athletics Hall on the ground floor. 1 in the Wanderer's 'home': a raised wooden platform with a bed and table. To find it, go one grid square to the east from the Roosevelt Academy. There is an explosive chain of cars lined up on the road. A bus sits on the north end where the road crests. Northeast of this visual landmark is the platform.
Sewer waystation	2	In the County sewer mainline in a room in which you are attacked by a ghoul (Gallo), the books are next to the bed.
Signal Alfa Lima	1	Near broadcast tower KB5.
Signal Oscar Tango	1	South of the Jury Street Metro station.
Signal Oscar Zulu	1	Southeast of Relay Tower KX-B8-11.
Signal Papa November	1	West of the Charnel House.
Signal Sierra Romeo	2	North of Little Lamplight.
Sniper shack	1	Abandoned Shack west of Rockbreaker's Last Gas. On the table to the left of the locker that contains the Victory rifle.
Temple of the Union	1	Caleb's bed
Tepid sewers	2	One in the locked storage room (opened via a terminal or Rocksalt's key) underneath some other books in a box, and one in the raider's sleeping quarters on top of the bookshelves.
The Capitol building	1	In the East Entrance section on the fallen cabinet next to the desk with the Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor on it.
The National Archives	5	In The National Archives section on bookshelves. 1 on main floor, 4 downstairs from that.
Vault 92	5	Scattered around.
Vault-Tec headquarters	1	On top of a garbage can next to a safe in the corporate offices.
Yao guai tunnels	1	On the table by the entrance.

Related quests

• Yearning for Learning - green variant.

Notes

• Senior Scribe Yearling may sometimes not accept books from a location other than Arlington Library.
• Crazy Wolfgang and a few other vendors may sell "false" pre-War books. Once you fully invest in his inventory, Wolfgang will begin to carry them. Books that can be turned in have a value of 1, a green cover, and show a special "Book" icon, while Wolfgang's books have a value of 5, a blue cover, and appear with the "Junk" icon in your inventory (not stacking with the regular ones). These "false" pre-War books can be found throughout the Wasteland, Point Lookout, and Mothership Zeta as well.
• A blue and a green pre-War book can be found in the Operation: Anchorage add-on. Neither can be taken into your inventory.

Bugs

PC Carrying more than 99 pre-War books and telling Scribe Yearling "just take all the books I have" will cause her to take only 99 books, yet give you caps and XP for all the books you carry. For example, carrying all 110 pre-War books and giving them all to the scribe leaves you with 1100 XP, 11000 caps and 11 books left. ^[verified]

Gallery

See also

• Fallout 3 repeatable quests