Almanacs

[dunedin]

Last year I bought my first pilot book for a long time, Adriatic as I'd never sailed there before. What a waste of money! Inaccurate info on sailing and mostly stuff on restaurants and history which is available in far more detail on Wikipedia. I ended up relying on Navily, NoForeignLand and Noonsite. Navily was particularly good, being able to speak to people who had visited ports just days before and get bang up to date info on depths etc. Books on boats are a thing of the past. And no, the internet won't get turned off and I can manage batteries better than I can manage my reading glasses.

Yes, clearly depends on the quality of the Pilot Book. And need to be careful whether buying something aimed primarily at navigation vs a “companion” book aimed more at the shore stuff etc (also important to many).
I don’t know the Adriatic, but for example in the Irish Sea waters of the OP in post #1, the Irish Cruising Club sailing directions are brilliant and extremely comprehensive for the Irish side of his cruising waters - East & North Coasts of Ireland Sailing Directions -

And in Scottish Waters the CCC Sailing Directions are essential - and again massively more informative than any Almanac could possibly be. For example the Orkney & Shetland one alone is 150 detailed pages. When I compared my Clyde CCC book to an Almanac I think it was circa 175 pages vs 6 pages.
The new ExploreWithImray subscription is an excellent way to get (online) access to their detailed pilot books for a single subscription.