Skill Book Reading

[dwaynegand]

I play on normal difficulty both the first two games. I never tag First Aid, Repair, Science, or Outdoorsman due to those skills being raised by skill books. Small Guns is an exception despite having a magazine to raise it.

What I do when reading skill books except for Guns and Bullets, is raise the difficulty to hard, read the books, and then return to normal difficulty. This way, I get more out of reading skill books. In a few recent playthroughs, I've waited until my small guns skill is raised to 91% through skill books before investing points. Of course, this means I'm not as powerful in combat for much of the game and need to rely on followers. In Fallout 1, I could just barter for books in the hub library, though in Fallout 2, there is at least one magazine in the first few towns, then buying the rest in shops.

What I want to know is if raising the difficulty to hard and then back to normal for this exploit can be considered 'cheating'? Or if I shouldn't rely on magazines to raise my small guns skill and invest in it right away? What do you do?