I don't know if you are trying to do all this the old fashioned way or not. But if you don't care HOW you do it, the an easy way is to use Ishgard's restoration area and the various crafting beast tribes to level your character to 80, then do the collection weeklys to gain both white and yellow scrip. You will get enough yellow to easily get all the books from 3 to 8 in a few weeks. For the lower ones, yeah, you need to either make it or buy it off the board to turn in.

As for getting gear, if you belong to a FC, I am sure a fellow crafting loving member would be glad to help you with crafting gear for you as you level up. if, not, you could always buy what you need on the board.