Key Takeaway
To craft a Book in Minecraft, combine three pieces of Paper and one piece of Leather on a Crafting Table.
Books can be used to make many important items, such as Enchanting Tables, Bookshelves, and Enchanted Books.
Books are a source of imagination-fueled magic. However, in Minecraft, a Book can be a source of literal magic—the kind that lets you enchant your items! Before you can power up your weapons and armor, you’ll need to start with Paper and Leather.
Table Of Contents
How to Get a Book in Minecraft
To craft a Book in Minecraft, you need three pieces of Paper and one piece of Leather. On a Crafting Table, place your three pieces of Paper and one piece of Leather in any configuration you want—the recipe shape doesn’t matter. This gets you one Book.
How to Get Paper
You need Sugar Cane to craft Paper in Minecraft. Place three pieces of Sugar Cane in a horizontal line on a Crafting Table and you’ll get three pieces of Paper.
To find Sugar Cane, look along the banks of rivers. Sugar Cane grows naturally out of Sand blocks along the lengths of River and Ocean biomes. However, when farming Sugar Cane, you can plant it on Dirt blocks.
How to Get Leather
Leather is an item that’s mostly dropped by animal mobs. As such, to get a lot of Leather, you’ll need to farm it from the following mobs, as they all have a chance to drop up to two pieces of Leather upon death:
- Cows
- Mooshrooms
- Horses
- Donkeys
- Mules
- Llamas
Furthermore, Hoglins also drop Leather, but only one at a time. If you don’t want to hurt non-hostile mobs to farm Leather, then harvesting this resource from the hateful Hoglins is your best bet. In that case, you’ll need to head to the Nether, as that’s where Hoglins make their home.
Lastly, Rabbits can also be a source of Leather, albeit a time-consuming one. Each Rabbit drops one Rabbit Hide upon death—and it takes four Rabbit Hides to create a single piece of Leather.
Other Ways to Get Books
Besides crafting them yourself, you can also loot Books from various places. The easiest of which are Villages, as Bookshelves commonly spawn in Village libraries and houses. Simply breaking a Bookshelf causes it to drop three Books.
Bookshelves also spawn in Strongholds and Woodland Mansions, but these structures are rare and not efficient to seek out if all you want are Books.
On top of that, Books also appear as uncommon loot in the Chests of Ancient Cities, Shipwrecks, Strongholds, and Villages.
The Uses of a Book in Minecraft
Books are essential for enchanting in Minecraft. You’ll need Books to craft both an Enchanting Table as well as Bookshelves with which to improve your Enchanting Table’s potency.
Using Books to Craft an Enchanting Table
To craft an Enchanting Table, you’ll need four blocks of Obsidian, two Diamonds, and one Book. Place three blocks of Obsidian on the bottom row of your Crafting Table, and then put the fourth into the centermost slot. Next, on either side of the centermost Obsidian block, place your two Diamonds. Finally, put your Book in the top-middle slot to get one Enchanting Table.
Using Books to Craft a Bookshelf
Bookshelves are easy to make. Line the middle row of your Crafting Table with three Books. Afterward, place three Wooden Planks in the top row and then three more in the bottom row (six total). This recipe gives you one Bookshelf.
Tip
Turning a Book into an Enchanted Book
In place of enchanting a weapon or piece of armor, you can enchant a Book instead to get an Enchanted Book. The benefit of doing so is that you won’t get an unwanted Enchantment stuck on a precious item.
Keep enchanting Books until you get the Enchantment you want, and then combine that Enchanted Book with a valuable (and compatible) item on an Anvil.
Using Books to Craft a Book and Quill
By assembling one Book, one Ink Sac, and one Feather on a Crafting Table (in any configuration), you’ll get a Book and Quill. This is an item you can use to type sentences into a book’s pages.
In the Java Edition, Book and Quills have 100 pages, whereas in the Bedrock Edition, they only have 50. Either way, you can fit a ton of information into one! What’s more, once you’ve completed your in-game novella, you can sign it to turn your Book and Quil into a Written Book.
The more you know, the farther you’ll go! Use a Book to make your Minecraft goals become a reality, whether that’s through finding the best Enchantments (like Mending), writing an amazing in-game story, or even lining your base with Bookshelves for a library aesthetic.
