Discerning the Transmundane is weirdly easy if you know the trick

I just realized I've been doing this quest the hard way for like 8 playthroughs. You know the part where you have to get the Oghma Infinium and then use it on the Daedric artifact? Yeah, I was always grinding through the whole thing legit, going to Septimus Signus, doing the whole fetch quest chain.

But if you already have the book from somewhere else (or just console it in, no judgment), you can literally skip straight to the end and just hand it over. The quest doesn't actually check if you got it from Septimus. I felt dumb realizing that because I'd wasted so much time on earlier playthroughs when I could've just grabbed it off a shelf somewhere and saved myself like 20 minutes.

Also the Oghma Infinium stat boost is kind of a trap anyway. By the time you get it you're already past the point where +10 to three stats actually matters. On my current playthrough I'm just leaving it alone and using the book for the skill boost instead, which is way more useful.

Anyone else skip this quest entirely or am I the only one who finds it tedious?

Yeah, I think you're conflating two different things though. The quest itself requires you to bring Septimus the book - that's the whole point of his questline. What you're describing sounds more like just... not doing the quest and using the Oghma Infinium you found elsewhere for something else, which is fine but that's not really "skipping the quest," that's just not doing it.

The stat boost thing I agree with completely though. By the time you hit that questline you're already level 15+ usually, and +10 to three stats is genuinely worthless. The skill book version is infinitely better. I always take that option on my playthroughs now.

As for the quest itself being tedious - nah, I actually don't mind it. It's one of the few Daedric quests that feels like actual detective work instead of "go kill X" or "corrupt someone." The Dwemer lore stuff is interesting if you're into that. But I get that it's not for everyone, and if you've done it 8 times I can see why you'd want to skip it.