I'm having the same problem as the person in the thread "Text from menu, jornal and talk menu vanishing! How can I fix this!." A quick google and it'll be the first one that comes up. I wanted to post a link but I couldn't because I'm new.

But I tried the solution and isn't working. I own the Steam and GOG version and it's doing it on both. I'm currently redownloading it but I don't think it'll make much of a difference because the problem was in both version that I own. Could anyone provide any help? :/

I also tried the solution given in the other thread and it did not work. Did you ever find a fix? Anyone have any ideas?

Do these solutions help you guys out?
http://www.gog.com/forum/the_witcher/text_from_menu_jornal_and_talk_menu_vanishing_how_can_i_fix_this
http://steamcommunity.com/app/20920/discussions/0/810919056990718988/#c810919057001159642

If not I would suggest a reinstall, to solve any registry issues.
Also do you guys have AMD or Nvidia cards? You might want to tweak your CCC settings if you have AMD. Try to set the AA filtering to multi sampling instead of adaptive sampling.

If anyone is still wondering the guy who I talked with on the thread I'll link below will help you fix pretty much anything about the game.

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/11288-Text-in-menu-disappearing-help?highlight=text+menu+disappearing