So I want to have custom books in my game without having to play several generations and write them with a sim. I've been following this guide and so far it has worked well. My question is, what is stopping me from editing the standard books already listed in the file, and turning 'Murder in Pleasantview' into 'Sherlock Holmes'? I figure there are probably other codes that reference these books, so changing their code might bork all my bookshelves. But since I'm not computer savvy or a real coder and can only follow step by step tutorials, I thought I would ask. Is it safe to edit those references?

The Books XML from GameplayData contains all the data for all the premade books in the game: name, author, genre, page number, price, world you can buy them in. If you export the XML somewhere, edit it, then include it in a package, you can change all the books in the game. Of course, it'll conflict with any other mod that edits that XML.

The only thing that might reference those books are the toddler skills that turn into "adult" skills later on (Writing, Logic, Painting).
Edit: looking at the Skills XML, it doesn't reference any books.