I am not against it, but I think there are more useful things to do first.
Different shops. NPC chat.
If we have a quest system and players can submit chat parts ... it would be much more interesting!
What should I do with a "useless" logbook now as we have display blocks to store coordinates and other info? Make a room of them and you have more text easier accessible (also encourages going out of your cockpit (even if only with a camera - nice idea btw: disable text while in cockpit :D)
I wonder if the devs have looked at GearHead 2. I've never gotten very far past the inital character build, but I've read that it has a custom chat-and-quest system that dynamically creates storylines. That would be an interesting addition to the game, even if it created ridiculous scenarios. (Or maybe -especially- when it creates ridiculous scenarios!)
I imagine logbooks will be useful in some small way in the upcoming new crafting system. We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I can imagine people hoarding treasure chests full of related logbooks as their own personal story library. If logs become more varied and interesting, people might even trade logs they already have a copy of for logs they don't.
On a side note, does anyone else have the kind of bug where only the left-half of the log shows up? I only see the left half of the text. I can tell by the syntax that there is more text, but it just cuts off and is blank on the right side of the log. It might just be my resolution (1440x900) or probably my video driver.