On the left, the player is making a lectern from 4 wooden slabs an 1 bookshelf and on the right they are looking at a placed lectern.

How to Make a Lectern in Minecraft


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The main resource that you’ll need to make a Lectern in Minecraft is wood, though you’ll also need a bit more. If you plan to do a lot of reading in Minecraft, Lecterns can be used for aesthetics and comfort.

Table Of Contents

    What You Need to Make a Lectern

    Making a lectern by using 1 bookshelf and 4 wood slabs.

    The core component of the Lectern’s crafting recipe is 1 Bookshelf. However, you’ll also need 4 Wooden Slabs of any kind. On a Crafting Table, place the 1 Bookshelf on the centermost slot. After that, fill the top row with 3 Wooden Slabs and then place the last 1 beneath the Bookshelf.

    How to Make Bookshelves

    To make 1 Bookshelf, you’ll need to place 3 Books onto the middle row of a Crafting Table. Then, fill the top and bottom rows with Wooden Planks of any kind. This crafting recipe will indirectly mean that you’ll need Paper and Leather as well, as these are what Books are made from.

    How to Make Wood Slabs

    You can make a lot of Wooden Slabs from Wooden Planks. On a Crafting Table, put 3 Wooden Planks to fill up any row. This crafting recipe will give you 6 Wooden Slabs. It’s worth mentioning that you can make slabs this way from almost any kind of wood or stone, which can be useful for decorative purposes.

    What You Can Use a Lectern For

    A lectern placed in the corner of a dimly lit room made from polished granite and deepslate tiles. There is a tamed wolf nearby.

    The main function of a Lectern is to let you read certain kinds of books. You must first place either a Book and Quill or a Written Book on a Lectern. When you do so, an open book will physically appear on the Lectern. Interacting with the book in this state will allow you to read it as normal, however, other human players will also be able to read alongside you. As such, Lecterns are the ideal item to let multiple players read the same book at the same time. However, you can’t read regular Books or Enchanted Books on a Lectern, as they don’t have the function that lets you open them.

    Using a Lectern to Create Librarian Villagers

    Since Lecterns are also job site blocks that turn unemployed Villagers into Librarians, you can use Lecterns to gain access to more book-related trade options. The best way to turn an unemployed Villager into a Librarian is to be pretty pushy. An ideal method would be for you to barricade yourself inside of a house with a Villager and then place the Lectern close to them. This should result in that Villager turning into a Librarian shortly.

    About Readable Books

    To make a Book and Quill, you’ll need to combine a regular Book, an Ink Sac, and a Feather. Place the Ink Sac on the centermost slot of a Crafting Table and then put the Feather underneath it. After that, place the Book on the slot to the left of the Ink Sac. When you have a finished Book and Quill, you can use it while it is in your hand to open it. Doing so will let you write inside of this item with a simple text editor.

    When you have finished writing your document, you can sign the Book and Quill to turn it into a Written Book. After you create a Written Book this way, its item name will become the title that you’ve given it.