1) I bought some books but can find no command to READ them...like I could in W1
2) BRAWLING.....I see a letter appearing when I'm in a fight.Hitting that key on my keyboard doesn't seem to help much and I loose too many fights. Can someone detail how to fist fight ?
What you're doing is correct, unless you've remapped the keys from the standard WASD, in which case there's a bug - it displays "W" but you need to press whatever you remapped "W" to.
It's time-constrained, you need to hit the key fairly quickly, and there's often TWO keys in fast succession. It tends to be easier if you de-focus, look at the screen as a whole instead of watching the fight. Also, the keys are in the same position
-W-
A-S
-D-
all of the time, so follow the position rather than what is written on the key.
It can take a few tries to get the hang of it, but then it'll suddenly click and you'll wonder why it ever felt like a problem.
If you decide you hate it, the only ones that are mandatory are the ones at the end of the prologue and the start of Chapter 1. After that, you can ignore it if you choose.
Reading the books is done from the journal instead of inventory. They're automatically "Read" when you get them.