How to Make a Book in Minecraft

Minecraft for the Computer or Console

Gather sugar cane. Sugar cane is a green reed that grows near bodies of water. It can be difficult to find on some worlds, but if you follow a coastline you should come across it. Break it with your bare hands or any tool to pick it up. Sugar cane does not grow next to frozen water. Look for it in warm biomes.

Start a sugar cane farm (recommended). Since sugar cane can be annoying to find, save some to plant before you turn it all into paper. Placing a piece of sugar cane on the ground will plant it, but it will only grow taller in the following conditions: It must be planted on dirt, sand, grass, or podzol. There must be at least one water block adjacent to the ground it is planted on. Note — to harvest the cane, just wait until it grows taller and break the top blocks. If you leave the lowest cane block it will keep growing.

Turn three cane into paper. Fill one row of a crafting table with sugar cane (three in total). This makes three sheets of paper, which is enough to make one book.

Hunt for leather. Cows are usually not difficult to find, while horses spawn only in plains or savannah. Each one killed will drop 0 to 2 units of leather. You'll need one piece of leather for each book. You can also make leather out of four rabbit hides, or find it occasionally by fishing. If you want a steady source of leather, grow wheat and use the harvested stalks to lure cows into an enclosure. Offer a pair of cows more wheat to breed them whenever you're getting low on animals.

Combine paper and leather to make a book. Place leather in one square and paper in three squares, anywhere in the crafting area. This makes one book.

Minecraft Pocket Edition

Check your version number. These instructions assume you are playing Minecraft Pocket Edition version 0.12.1 or later. If you are playing an earlier version, be aware of the following changes: Before 0.12.1, books do not require leather to craft, but they also have no use in the game. Before 0.3.0, books do not exist.

Search for sugar cane. Sugar cane is a green reed that grows near bodies of water. You can harvest it with your bare hands. Once you find some, consider planting your own back at your base so you have a permanent paper supply. Sugar cane grows on sand or dirt adjacent to water. If you don't have enough cane to make the amount of paper you'd like, you can make it grow faster with bone meal.

Turn three sugar cane into paper. Tap your crafting table and select the Paper recipe in the Decorations menu. This will turn three sugar cane into three paper.

Kill cows for leather. Each cow killed will drop 0, 1, or 2 pieces of leather. If you have Pocket Edition 0.11 or later, you can find it by fishing instead, but it is much less common there.

Combine paper and leather into a book. The Book is another item in the Decorations section of the crafting table menu.

Crafting Other Items with Books

Combine books with wooden planks to make bookshelves. Combine six planks (top and bottom rows) with three books (center row) to make a bookshelf. Many players craft these blocks just for style, but they can also improve your enchantment results.

Make an enchantment table. You'll need four blocks of obsidian (full bottom row and center square), two diamonds (left and right of center), and one book (top center). Using an enchantment table allows you to spend experience on special abilities for your tools, weapon, and armor. To make obsidian, divert flowing water onto lava. You will need a diamond pickaxe to mine the obsidian. Using enchanted books in minecraft allows a user to get random enchantments from an enchantment table. It allows a user to add more enchantments to previously enchanted items through the use of an anvil. Enchanted books can be acquired by the user through trading with librarian villagers.

Craft a book and quill. Place a book, ink sac, and feather anywhere in the crafting area to make a book and quill. Using this item opens an interface where you can type in a long message. This recipe is not available in pocket edition, or in some older console versions. To get feathers, kill chickens. To get ink sacs, kill squid.