Newbie to the Witcher games.

There is a big difference for The Witcher 1 and 2 between the release version and the enhanced editions.  The game improved dramatically between those versions for me.

Yes it's in the intelligence skill tree in the second level branch. In the same branch there is also the herbalism perk which let's you pick flowers after you read about them, which gives you much more ingredient options for making oils and potions. So figure it would be all in all worth 3 bronze points, or one level up. 

Should have been more clearer on why I already thought you had the book, so sorry about that. But a tip that I needed when I played was to occasionally check the inventory to see if I had a new scroll or book there and leaf through it, because some of the books have monster info, plant info and potion recipes. 
And nothing worse than struggling only to find out you had an easier way collecting dust in your pocket

Well he'll probably drop even further down in likability pretty soon. 
Drowners are a pain at first but do remember getting some satisfaction being able to mow them down in the group style near the end of the chapter. Drowned dead keep being annoying though. 

Also regarding books, you can give the old ladies some food in exchange for stories, which also add to the monster manual. Think there are like 3 different stories they can tell you, maybe a bit more. So that's also handy. 

Did a lot today lit the 5 fire shrines for that dick I mean reverend. It did nothing Beast is still out there. Did a quest for one of the npc's the reverend told me about. The npc told me he was having trouble with drowners destroying his crates. I killed them and met the Scoia'tael I let them keep the crates. Told the owner and got my reward. Did another quest for another important npc and it was Odo. Paid him a visit got drunk and had to kill two plant monsters. Collected my reward then left drunk. Had to fight 5 barghests, Odo's dog is guarding something don't know what.

Did the quest where I had to recover a guy's friends remains from a cave. Had to kill 5 plant monsters, brought the skull to the quest giver. He told me to take it to the crypt at the chapel. Went and placed the skull in a sarcophagus. Was confronted by a skeletal spectre called the King of the Wild Hunt. After it finished talking I was confronted by the spectre of Leo. "Killed" it and went to quest giver for reward. Spent the rest of the time buying books and reading the glossary.

Yeah, I've gotten use to the combat, and now that I can pick herbs, make potions, and oils.  I'm not too worried about the current monsters.  Though those plant monsters are tough cause they gang up on me.   I just have one more contract to do, and 2 more main questlines.  Then hopefully Geralt would be let into the city.  I wish we could use a horse though.  Too much running back and forth on foot.

Yeah I do remember seeing a clip of Geralt riding a horse in TW3.

I did all of the remaining quests and am now fighting the Beast, but I am having trouble to kill it.  I tried taking a swallow potion before the fight but it works too slow and the Beast kills me.  I killed it's friends but the Beast still kills me.  What's killing me is the stun effect.  I got the Igni sign and upgraded both it and Aard.  Would the any of these signs work on it?  Any tips on how to defeat this monster?

Thanks for the link but I finally beat him this morning at 6am. It took me 13 tries but on the 13th I was able to stun it with the Aard sign Then I one hit killed it. Now I am at Chapter II and Geralt has been imprisoned. I'll play later on tonight.

Thanks been enjoying it so far.  I was going to skip to TW2 or TW3, but like the Mass Effect games it's good to start from the beginning and see how it started.  Although Geralt has a cold monotone voice he does have a sense of humor and can be sarcastic at times.  The combat is annoying because I have to keep the mouse cursor on the npc while clicking the left mouse button.  What makes it annoying is if you don't have the cursor on the npc Geralt won't attack.  My favorite part so far though is the alchemy.  Love gathering herbs and creating potions and oils.  But boy that boss battle with the Beast almost made me give up I tried thirteen times before I finally killed it.

Looking at that list, I feel like "I've been doing it wrong" Didn't use a single mod in TW2 (3 completed PTs) and just the one - Halk Hogan's Texture mod (which is awesome - I hope the poor guy didn't have a meltdown when he saw CDPR were releasing a next gen version with upgraded visuals - he has been working on that thing for years) in TW3 (3.5 PTs).