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moridinamael comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 16, chapter 85 - Less Wrong Discussion
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I am fairly sure that books can still contain information about spells and magic which is oblique or in the form of a riddle. The vast majority of wizards are insufficiently clever and dedicated to discover and then unravel the meanings of such riddles.
This is literally my favorite part of the HPMOR magic system - the fact that it is a magic system designed to reward Conscientiousness. There doesn't seem to be such a thing as "innate power levels" in HPMOR. If Voldemort and Dumbledore are strong, it is for the same reason that Hermione is strong; they are the most intelligent and diligent wizards of their generations.
Conversely, I think it would strain credulity to assume that Voldemort was, by chance, both a super-genius and the most powerful wizard. The simpler hypothesis is that one causes the other.
I like the Conscientiousness rewarding in the story too. I don't understand what it has to do with whether or not they get information from books though. There's a line somewhere in the text that almost literally says magic can only be passed from one living mind to another because of the Interdict of Merlin. So, unfortunately, reading doesn't seem to do much besides make you better at what you've already heard about from living teachers.
Riddles would be an interesting workaround, but nothing we've yet seen implies that works. And, there's not a relevant difference between simply reading something and solving a riddle - both use your mind, but apparently that isn't enough to get around the interdict of Merlin.