1) I read somewhere that if you have a wand that is just about out of charges you can sell it to a a merchant and buy it back fully recharged. Is this true? I have one that has one charge left in it but cant find anyone that will buy it.
2) I am also building a large collection of stuff that Im carring around for apparently no reason. Do the books I run upon really have any meaning in the game? And what the hell is up with these golden pantaloons Im lugging around?

1) Yes, if your Wand is running low on charges and you'd really prefer to keep that Wand for later use (as opposed to those stupid "disposable" Wands of Magic Missile), you can just sell it to a shop (Temples will not buy anything from you), and then buy it back, completely recharged. Most Wands in BG1 store a maximum of 20 charges. The tricky part is knowing how many charges your Wand has left: To find out, you can Save your game, use the Wand until it vanishes, and just Reload. (In BG2, all of the Wands have their own "Fuel Gauges.")

2) All of the History books that you find cluttering up peoples' bookshelves are there to add background to the story, and hopefully make you a smarter player. But if you're asking whether your possession of them will have any affect on actually beating the game, the answer is no. As for the Pantaloons, they are the penultimate weirdass item, and a great laugh. "Pantaloons that you would be proud to take home to Mother, if Mother rode fast and fought hard." If you happen to have them in your main character's Inventory when you export your character in Baldur's Gate II, however, you have a chance to complete an additional quest there.

Thanx Six...btw I like your site! As for the wand...like I say I cant find anyone that wants to buy it let alone let me by it back!

The mage in High Hedge buys wands. So does Sorcerous Sundries in Baldur's Gate city. Those are the only two places I know of off hand.

Actually, there are two history books that are used. One of them is easy to find, and the other, well, you'll bump into it eventually.

Ah, yes, 2 of those common History books do take part in a couple of (very) minor quests....but the History of the Nether Scrolls is different, and isn't exactly something that you'd find on your average Commoner's bookshelf.