Overview
A Book is three paper and one leather, and it is the gateway to enchanting. Six books plus three planks make a Bookshelf, and fifteen bookshelves placed two blocks out from an enchanting table, with a block of air between shelf and table, unlock the level-30 enchantment tier — which is the only way to roll the highest-level enchantments from a table rather than buying them. That single requirement, 90 books' worth of shelves, is why cow farms and sugar cane farms exist in most worlds. Books also make Enchanted Books directly at the table, become a Book and Quill with a feather and an ink sac, and are the item librarian villagers want at the start of their trade tree. A bookshelf broken without Silk Touch returns its three books, so a shelf is also a storage form. If a world feels stalled before enchanting, the answer is almost always more leather rather than more paper — cows are the slower half of the recipe. Cows before cane, then, if the goal is an enchanting table rather than a map wall.
Building the bookshelves that unlock level-30 enchanting, making enchanted books at the table, and crafting books and quills for writing. It is the item that gates enchanting entirely.
Book is a crafting material item in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. Sixty-four fit in one inventory slot. The recipe calls for Paper and Leather.
It is used to craft Bookshelf, Enchanting Table, and Book and Quill.
How to get it
Craft 1 from 3 Paper and 1 Leather. A full 15-bookshelf enchanting setup needs 45 books, which is 135 paper and 45 leather in total.
Tips
- Fifteen bookshelves is the maximum that counts; a sixteenth adds nothing at all to the enchantment level.
- Leave one block of air between each shelf and the table, or the shelves are ignored entirely.
- Breaking a bookshelf returns 3 books, so shelves double as compact book storage.
- The enchanting guide shows the exact table and shelf layout that works.
Properties
Its enchantability of 1 decides how good the enchanting table's offers are: the higher the number, the more often a level-30 table offers the top-tier enchantment rather than a weak one. One inventory slot holds 64, so a double chest holds 3,456.
- Stack size
- 64
- Enchantability
- 1
- Category
- Materials
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Shapeless recipe
Book
Dropped by blocks
Mining Bookshelf drops Book.
Used to craft
Book is an ingredient in 3 recipes, producing Bookshelf, Enchanting Table, and Book and Quill.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you make Book in Minecraft?
Book is crafted from Paper and Leather.
What is the stack size of Book?
Book stacks to 64.
