I am frustrated with the usage of the word "draw." Namely, with Patrice Hathaway's personal story.

Y'Golonac's power says to add a doom token each time an investigator draws a tome (whether it is kept or not). I understand this to mean that even if you are shopping at the Curiositie Shoppe and pull a tome out of the deck, you would add a doom token.

Then, there are personal stories, such as Dexter Drake's and Patrice's which pass when you draw a certain amount of a particular card. Following the same ruling as above, Patrice's story is the easiest and most overpowered thing EVER. Just go to the Curiositie Shoppe, shop once and draw your 3 cards, and boom, passed, gain 5 clue tokens.

I can only assume this is not what is intended. So, on every personal story and any other card that requires you to draw a particular type of card to gain an effect are we meant to read it as "draw and keep" with the exception being Y'Golonac which specifically says "whether you keep it or not?" Going in this direction would make Dexter Drake's PS harder than I would like it. Thus my frustration. Somebody please explain to me when it is supposed to be "draw and keep" and when it is supposed to be "draw (whether you keep it or not)."

Yes, there are many occasions where the same words mean different things.

As far as Personal Stories are concenrned, draw means buy or gain. You quickly spotted how ridiculous it would be to play it any other way.

Yes, you've got it. Also note that the section on Y'Golonac mentions that you do not count the cards you discard when searching the deck. I'm not saying you normally should, but I am saying that this seems to indicate that searching the deck for something counts as drawing as well (which makes sense). Thus, Dexter's story can be passed via any of the various library encounters that give you a tome or Miskatonic U's Restricted Section ability.