failed experiment

Sometimes a negative finding can be useful.

I attempted on my character to skip one of the trait books, to see if I could save some gold. When I got to level 60, I bought the 2 gold book. It shows like you're ready for it, but it won't actually let you learn the book until you have read the lvl 40 1 gold book. *sigh* 

Well, it was worth a shot. It did work in another game.

Incidentally, going without your trait book in pve/wvw doesn't feel at all gimpy, and now having the trait book my character really plays about the same.

A good experiment is never a failure. Which profession was this with? I tried the same thing with my Engineer, and made it to 50 without the lvl 40 manual. I finally realized that 1 gold isn't that much, bought the book, and used it. It was like suddenly playing an entirely different, and infinitely more powerful, character. I noticed a huge difference in solo PvE, but almost no difference in WvW (where I stick with the zerg).

Try this: Put in a buy order on the TP for 80 silver for the 1gb books. Some times people accidently buy an extra book and look to make back some of what they spent.

Yeah, you can pretty routinely get the lvl 11 manuals for 3-5s. I've done this for all my characters.

I did it on my guardian. 10/10/10/10/10 trait points, and then I couldn't spend any more. Bought the upgrade and it still plays about the same. The tip for buy-order is a good one, it's worth a shot, and with patience could save some coin.

At level 80 with my Mesmer, I still have not bought the level 60 book. I see no traits I must have that the 60 book gives. For the way I play it so far anyway.