As we know, Loial, son of Arent son of Halan, of Stedding Shangtai, loves to read and cares more for his books than for almost anything else (trees being perhaps the only exception). Even when weather conditions are bad enough to cause freezing rains that force others to huddle inside their cloaks shivering, Loial constantly neglects to keep himself dry but makes sure his books are kept safe. "He did not seem to mind getting wet himself, but he worried continually about his books."
Why is that? Why is a book more important than his health? Loial would rather be harmed himself than let a book of his be damaged: "better to hit Loial on the head than harm one of his books." The reason, I believe, is because Loial has special, magic books. Have we ever seen Loial stop in somewhere to buy a book? No. tTe only time he could replenish his book supply is when he visits this or that library, but what library is going to let anyone take one of their books, even if it's an ogier who is close to the Dragon Reborn? There's no point in keeping a center of knowledge if you are going to let people come in and take the books home with them. I doubt if they're up for the trading system ("Oh, no way, you've got a copy of The Depths of Aryth Ocean! I'll trade you a 3rd edition A Blight Full of Nasties for it!").
We know that Loial is constantly reading whenever he has free time (ie. on his horse, when camped for the night, anytime he's standing still). So does he read the same books over and over and over again? No. He doesn't. Loial is one of those who reads a book once and can remember every detail of it, as is evidenced by his lectures to anyone who will listen. So how does he get new books to read? Well, did you ever notice that there's always a bulge in his coat pockets in the shape of a book? That is where the answer lies. Long long ago, even before the Breaking of the World, Aes Sedai created for the Ogier coats with terangreal pockets. These pockets, coupled with the terangreal books they made, would allow the Ogier to live in their stedding without ever having to venture into the outside world to obtain new books. The way they worked was simple: when an Ogier is wearing one of these coats, it is just an ordinary coat. But when they put one of the terangreal books into the terangreal pocket, the book is altered by the OP to become a different book. The Ogier have no control over what book comes out, but no two books are ever the same. A coat pocket/book combination can never make the same book come out twice. This is how Ogier in the stedding were able to learn so much. And this is how Loial is able to read something new all the time.
These coats and books, however, were lost after the Breaking of the World. Only a few survived and were passed down from father to son. Loial is one of the lucky ones to have received such a gift from his father: a coat with terangreal pockets and two of the terangreal books. with these two books, Loial need not ever step into a bookstore to buy new books, he simply reads the current titles, puts them back into his coat pockets, and when he takes them out they are brand new. this is why he protects and cares so much for them. And why he respects Aes Sedai to the great extent that he does. If the Aes Sedai could do this, how could they possibly be bad?
-hupspring
