I have a ton of Bookshelf related questions, please only provide answers that are confirmed to be true for the current XBOX version of the game. Screenshots are welcome.

1) Do pearl shop bookshelves have durability? I can confirm they did not during the betas, but I don't have any yet on release.

2) Can multiple characters be reading from the same bookshelf at the same time? If not, followup question, will a character continue to read if you change to another character?

A: I can read from the same bookshelf with multiple characters, and after switching to another character the previous continues to read. (Annolisa Rosie bookshelf)

3 a) Besides the pearl shop items, what are all the other methods for acquiring a bookshelf, for example, can one be crafted via a furniture workshop or something? I know of one, you can convert knowledge at an NPC in Calpheon named: Annolisa Rosie. 

3 b) Do the non-pearl shop bookshelves have durability and is it reduced by reading? I can confirm the bookshelf you get from converting knowledge via Annolisa Rosie has 10 durability, however, I haven't used it yet to see if the durability is actually reduced by use. (I'll update this once I use it)

A: The Annolisa Rosie bookshelf does show 10 Durability, but I have confirmed the durability is not reduced when reading.

4) When converting knowledge into a bookshelf via Annolisa Rosie, you are supposed to choose a completed knowledge category, then convert it into a bookshelf and loose the knowledge. When I did this I chose Balenos Imps, but afterwards I still had multiple S ranked knowledge for those Imps.

4 a) How does this loss of knowledge work, can you randomly loose any knowledge in the category? 

4 b) Are S ranks excluded, meaning if you choose a category with all S ranks would you loose none? 

4 c) What is the smallest and easiest knowledge category to complete for repeatedly converting it into bookshelves?

3/12/19: Updated with some answers I discovered last night testing this out.

I'll just skip your points and explain my way. Bookshelf can be used indefinitely (no Durability consumption) by all of your characters at once. You log in, start reading, switch, start reading again etc. It takes 60 minutes for one round and you will gain one RANDOM knowledge from Serendia / Calpheon / Balenos. It can be any type of knowledge or any monster ranking. Please note that the knowledge you gain can be the same as you already had in which case you don't learn anything and Bookshelf becomes bit less useful the more you know from those territories. Still it's worthwhile to get into. On PC you can't switch channels when your alts are reading, but i'm not sure if that applies to Xbox as i always let em read when i leave for the night.

Pearl item only ?

Didn't see one on the crafting lists

49 minutes ago, Grammaticus said:

I'll just skip your points and explain my way. Bookshelf can be used indefinitely (no Durability consumption) by all of your characters at once. You log in, start reading, switch, start reading again etc. It takes 60 minutes for one round and you will gain one RANDOM knowledge from Serendia / Calpheon / Balenos. It can be any type of knowledge or any monster ranking. Please note that the knowledge you gain can be the same as you already had in which case you don't learn anything and Bookshelf becomes bit less useful the more you know from those territories. Still it's worthwhile to get into. On PC you can't switch channels when your alts are reading, but i'm not sure if that applies to Xbox as i always let em read when i leave for the night.

 Is all that specifically the pearl shop bookshelf?

The bookshelf is currently bugged right when you switch off the character they stop reading

12 minutes ago, Death said:

The bookshelf is currently bugged right when you switch off the character they stop reading

Wait I am confused, are you saying that when you switch characters the character you just left stays active on the server as an uncontrolled player? It makes sense that if you’re switching characters, the one you were just using disappears for the server right?

1 hour ago, WeAreLegion said:

Wait I am confused, are you saying that when you switch characters the character you just left stays active on the server as an uncontrolled player? It makes sense that if you’re switching characters, the one you were just using disappears for the server right?

The way the bookshelf would work on pc is you start reading on character 1 and then switch to character 2 and play. Then after an hour you got some random knowledge. I don't you can see character 1 while playing on 2 though.

Right now character 1 stops reading when you switch off

55 minutes ago, Death said:

The way the bookshelf would work on pc is you start reading on character 1 and then switch to character 2 and play. Then after an hour you got some random knowledge. I don't you can see character 1 while playing on 2 though.

Right now character 1 stops reading when you switch off

Ahh I see. Cool. Hopefully they bring that to us also. 

4 hours ago, Death said:

The bookshelf is currently bugged right when you switch off the character they stop reading

How did you come to that conclusion? When i switch to characters i clearly see "Reading A Book" underneath each and every character name that started reading (on disconnect screen). Never had issues that it would show just under one or had any resets.

10 hours ago, Grammaticus said:

How did you come to that conclusion? When i switch to characters i clearly see "Reading A Book" underneath each and every character name that started reading (on disconnect screen). Never had issues that it would show just under one or had any resets.

I started the reading switched off and then switched back onto the character and they were no longer reading.

Also I've never gotten random knowledge pop up on my screen. I tried this 2nd day of launch but not since then so its possible they have fixed it. I can try it again later tonight and see if its been fixed.

1 hour ago, Death said:

I started the reading switched off and then switched back onto the character and they were no longer reading.

Also I've never gotten random knowledge pop up on my screen. I tried this 2nd day of launch but not since then so its possible they have fixed it. I can try it again later tonight and see if its been fixed.

 I too saw an issue when I switched back to a character before they had finished reading, for me, they kept reading but the timer reset... at least it reset visually, a few minutes later she finished reading right at the 1 hour mark. There may be some bugs if you switch off while reading then switch back while reading is still active, try again tonight and don't switch back until the hour has passed. I did two sets of this last night, and I can confirm I received at least a few random knowledge ranks when they finished (maybe more, I might not have seen them on popup).

This morning I also noticed several characters were still showing as reading a book in the change character screen even though I had set them to read before going to bed about 6 hours prior. Upon switching into the first one from my character I was AFKing on all night, they were not reading and the other characters no longer showed as reading a book.

I updated the Original Post with some of my findings from playing with this last night.

37 minutes ago, Rok_Klimer said:

 I too saw an issue when I switched back to a character before they had finished reading, for me, they kept reading but the timer reset... at least it reset visually, a few minutes later she finished reading right at the 1 hour mark. There may be some bugs if you switch off while reading then switch back while reading is still active, try again tonight and don't switch back until the hour has passed. I did two sets of this last night, and I can confirm I received at least a few random knowledge ranks when they finished (maybe more, I might not have seen them on popup).

This morning I also noticed several characters were still showing as reading a book in the change character screen even though I had set them to read before going to bed about 6 hours prior. Upon switching into the first one from my character I was AFKing on all night, they were not reading and the other characters no longer showed as reading a book.

I updated the Original Post with some of my findings from playing with this last night.

Ill have to try it out, thank you for the info

5 hours ago, Death said:

I started the reading switched off and then switched back onto the character and they were no longer reading.

Also I've never gotten random knowledge pop up on my screen. I tried this 2nd day of launch but not since then so its possible they have fixed it. I can try it again later tonight and see if its been fixed.

Aw yeah, you cancel reading when you switch back, but you can read on all your alts at the same time. Just go one by one except the one you want to play and you'll see them "Reading a Book" for 1 hour.

When I converted knowledge into a bookshelf via Annolisa Rosie, I choose Balenos Imps. My understanding was reading would give you random knowledge, but I only seem to be getting random Balenos Imp knowledge... is that how this is supposed to work? Why would I throw out knowledge I already have in order to slowly earn it back via reading?