Are chess books useful?

^^^^^

Yes

#1
Yes,
but do not overdo it.
1 book per year is enough.
"Chess books should be used as we use glasses: to assist the sight, although some players make use of them as if they thought they conferred sight" - Capablanca

I disagree. You should study as many chess books as you can. 1 per year isn't enough

#4
The essence is still to play, to lose, and to analyse lost games.
Books are helpful, but cannot substitute play.
The more bookish player is often not the better player.

@op no chess books r not useful, u learn everything just by sitting there and imagining it

20 books are enough to become a grandmaster,
an endevour of 10 years, that makes 2 books per year
https://rafaelleitao.com/chess-books-grandmaster/ 
It is not enough to buy a book and put it on the shelf.
One good book takes you 200 hours to study.

It is known that different people have different learning styles.

(A) If you use books, be sure to go through them carefully -- they can be very useful. 

(B) If you don't use books, you must have some other form of borrowing from the accumulated experience / ideas / wisdom of other strong players who have gone before you.  (This may involve going through specialized articles, following coaching videos, working directly with a coach, etc.)  If you don't learn from the mistakes of others, you are bound to repeat those mistakes, and this will definitely slow down your progress.

You can read all you want, I think you can learn more getting crushed by the computer.

from a FM i played OTB and many legends, they all say the russian books are godly incredible

Chatty and funny chess books are the best!  🤖

Certaily!
Nowadays the paper books are  also  available in other formats  as PDF, e-books, sites and so on, as well as can  be complemented by softwares and online games.

Yes.

It depends on the book puzzle books and other that help you recognize patterns. For those on theory not too much because as at the lower level your opponent won't play into it but once you reach 1000 they become useful now that is my opinion. 

What was the context of Capablanca's assertion?

Exactly. I see several quote sites referencing this statement, but no publication

Why would chess books NOT be useful?

The question you want to ask is “is it worth it to buy chess books?” Even though that question is still vague.

Personally, books helped me a lot, but i enjoy reading anyways.

yes kinda I do have one it made me learn new openings but u can use an electronic to search up not wasting 10 bucks for it so a yes and a no

That’s the M.O. for fake quotes, which are abundant.