The WOT universe definitely has Printing Presses. The WOT encyclopaedia (im pretty damn sure this is where i read this.) makes this very clear, stating that it was one of the few technologies which survived the breaking and flourished quickly afterwards.

Apart from that I agree with everything you said. It is an oversight that not more books are mentioned or seen to be owned especially as you rightly say there is somehow near universal ability to read and write.

(this could be due to an artificially high price of paper or some such but i know that thats unlikely.)

Earlier in the series I had presumed that Jain Farstrider had lived a considerable time before Rand et al and that over the years his book had become a classic and had percolated to every village under the bloody sun.

However after having met Jain and having him be only a relatively old man I have to say that this baffles me. No clue how it became so widely read and regarded in such a short period of time.