How do you rate the books? And I appreciate you maybe German but do you or anyone know how they translate to English?

Yeah. It sorta like Lucas Arts games set in Star Wars universe. Those are in line with Episodes 1-6, but considered non-canon by Disney and contradict Disney's new Star Wars installments. The same with Withcer games - they don't contradict existing boooks (for the most part), but Sapkowskii doesn't consider them canon and can easily make books that don't take games events into account.
You're right. However, dude was talking about the sewers at the beginning of Chapter 2. That area is not particulary big either.

I've read them in German and I'm not the greatest fan of the translation (by German SF author Erik Simon) tbh. - it's a bit vulgar. I've read The Last Wish in English and liked the translation better, although some people found it has a few linguistic problems with names of places and stuff like that.

I liked the translation of the Hussite Trilogy (by Barbara Samborska) a lot better - the language is much more beautiful and less vulgar. From what I heard from Polish people the original writing style is about the same for Witcher and Hussites, so it's really the translations that are different.

As for the rating - translation aside they are easily among my favourite books of all time.

1 and 2, are different games, in graphics, gameplay, style and as an overall concept, as well. 1 is a bit more "niche", with certain features, like getting blind drunk (nice effects) and it even being a mini-game, interesting mementos of intimate encounters (really liked those cards, especially the game extras calendar compiled by those), the group fighting style (really useful), the richer and more complex alchemy (including crafting your own Fisstech and even making use of it), special secondary weapon fatalities (hello, assassin dagger) and overworld utility (hello, torch), etc. The mini campaigns were also very okay.

2, on the other hand, feels more action packed, more console-ish, is a bit simplified of sorts, but brings new features in play, forces you to fight like a ninja (always rolling, evading, going sideways to avoid incoming blows) and is a different game, on many levels.

You can enjoy it perfectly fine, on its own. This was also a very old question, especially here.

* Do you miss much story-wise without playing the first game?
* Is the second game more enjoyable than the first one?
* Does the second game still have all that weird sex card nonsense or similar?
* Is the second game all-round less cringe-inducing?
* Are the quests less dull?
* Does the writing improve?

1. No, you don't miss much, besides dialogue gives you hints, at various points.
2. Depends. Even i who liked 1 more, i find 2 more enjoyable. This is the general going.
3. No, no cards. Instead, live cutscenes (i prefer the cards, though...)!
4. What do you mean "cringe" inducing? 1 was fine. It even had long philosophical debates, lol!
5. Depends. RPG quests are always boring and everything has been done before. I don't believe any The Witcher games' quests are boring.
6. The Witcher has always been praised, for its writing. Again, what do you mean "improve writing"?

Usually,the first is the best of the rest.And this is no exception.

From what it's worth, I didn't enjoy the first chapter all that much compared to the rest of the game.

Lets not forget there is plenty of sewer action in The Witcher 3 also. :P

For me its the opposite. I've completed the first but got bored of and quit the second. I'll eventually give it another shot but I've become enraptured by the Souls series. So maybe in five years or something...

I have finished it. And the first game, for me, was way better than witcher2. The atmosphere, the story, the characters, everything was superior than the second game. Only downsides of the first game to me were its combat system and limited gears.

Witcher 2 felt very average.

Witcher 3 is excellent though.

I thought the same. After a few chapters of Witcher 2,I didn't like either. O couldn't follow the characters or events. There were too many. And combat was too hard.

I put it down for a year or two and have it another go. It was awesome. Best rpg I ever played (until 3)

It's not for everyone. It has its quirks. Combat is very challenging. Difficulty spikes are rough in a few places. But overall, a good, solid game. And I thought it was worth playing so I knew some of the factions for Witcher 3. Without Witcher 2, I've heard it's a bit jarring to get into Witcher 3. But Witcher 3 is far more Witcher-y and overall far better off a game but it's also open world which had pros and cons.

You can skip the first game easily, the pacing is very bad and they story gets side-tracked in Chapter IV which can be very jarring if you get into it. The export-import feature for save games from 1 to 2 doesn't work properly either as the choices I made in my saved games were all ignored making playing the first game pretty much pointless.

But then I never liked the trilogy as a whole anyway as I found the whole series rather boring.

HAHAHAHAH .... The writing in the first game is part of what made it cringe-worthy. I love the first game despite never having finished it myself. But to say the writing wasn't at least awkward at points, as well as the terrible VO in the first game... Well, that's just funny.

The VO gets somewhat better in the second game (Doug Cockle sometimes slips out of Geralt-mode in conversations) and is excellent in the third game.

What points? Can you bring some examples. Because for me first Witcher was one of the best story, characters and dialogs in games I ever seen.

I can't say about VO anything. I played in Russian, and it was excellent. Maybe English voices had some problems.

Finished all the the games in the series several times and I'd highly recommend not giving up on the first one. Begining can be a bit boring at times, but the story gets much deeper later on and pausing the game around the third chapter became a bit hard.. I'd say play it till end to make yourself familiar with the very rich world and unforgettable NPC's. Then play the second one. By the time you get to the Go Your Way - The Witcher 3 trailer you might have tears in your eyes just like I had ; p

I have finished the Witcher 1 and 2 so far, I have yet to play the third opus.
I really enjoyed both games.

Like previous answers said, the two games are very different in gameplay mechanics. Therefore if you didn't like the first one, it's likely you will be fine with the second one as it has a more classic approach to combat (dark soul like).
The lore is the same and the story is a direct continuation of the first one. But I don't think it's much of a problem to play the second game without finishing the first one.
Be aware that the Witcher 2 is loaded with cutscenes so sometimes it feels more like watching a movie than playing a games.

I would say go ahead and try the Witcher 2 to see directly how you like it. You can just read the scenario of the first one online beforehand.