Tomes

I was wondering about tomes...
how do you get them, are they drops or can you buy them?
I just found out about them

They drop in HM from monsters and locked chests, and you can buy them from other players.

Tomes are dropped from foes and locked chests in HM or traded for zaishen coins in great temple of balthazar. Elite tome drop from bosses, regular from regular tomes. You can also buy them from other players. For more detailed information, check wiki.
EDIT: can also drop from the zaishen chest, forgot that, sorry.

HM is short for Hard Mode, btw. Since they're random, you'd best try and buy them from other players.

Their effect is that when you use a tome, you can learn a skill that your account has already unlocked. Useful for getting skills early.

Here is the wiki page link for "Unlock" which explains that term. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Unlocked
To use a tome, your character must be either primary or secondary profession that matches the tome.

And you can trade in Zaishen Coins for tomes.

Though given the low price of tomes this is rarely a worthwhile thing to do (unless you have a lolt of coins spare)

If you are new to the game, don't worry about tomes yet. They are used when you want a skill that one of your characters has unlocked and you want another character to have.

That or if you have spare balthazar points and you want to get a skill you would normally only be able to get late in the game. However if you just started playing, it's unlikely that scenario applies to you.

Agreed 100%. I've personally never used my zcoins to purshace tomes but i do know people who have done so in the past just to sell me an elite rit tome here or there for 8k (which is a loss on their part). :P

thanks for your help guys