Enchanting Table

The Enchantment Table is a block. Notch has stated that Enchanting will work in three stages and the effects will be based on the spell you choose, but a random loot element will be included as well. Each spell will cost the player experience levels but in turn allow the player to enchant armor and swords so that they will be more powerful, last longer, and have more of a glossy look.

It will enchant wood, stone, iron, gold, and diamond swords, shovels, pickaxes, and axes, as well as all armor. The hoe, shears, bow, fishing rod and flint and steel are not enchantable.

If the table is surrounded by Bookshelves, various particles shaped like glyphs from the enchantment interface fly into the book part of the table only when the player is nearby. According to Jeb, having Bookshelves near an enchantment table will increase the potency of enchantments.

In 1.9 Pre-Release 3 and 4, the Enchantment Table can be destroyed with a single punch, but only drops as a block if it is harvested with a Pickaxe.

History
Notch first tweeted about the Enchantment Table on September 30th 2011.

Enchantments
Enchantment names are randomly constructed from a long list of words. Three to five words are chosen from the list and appended to each other, creating the enchantment name. Any name can be chosen for any item. Note that the names are not actually saved with the item, they are only displayed in the Enchantment Table interface, albeit with the Standard Galactic Alphabet. As of Minecraft Beta 1.9 Pre 4 some enchantments that are possible are: Bane Of Arthropods,(strong against spiders), Smite I, Sharpness I, and Knockback I. All enchantments have an I, II, III, IV, and V model too. It is shown in the coding that the enchantment tiers go up to X, but nothing above V has been speculated. A normal table can only enchant up to level 5 but it is known that adding bookshelves will increase it to higher levels. The highest level has not been confirmed but currently the highest seen is 51. A sword that is enchanted has a particle effect when attacking a mob. This is not true for all enchantments, however.

Known Enchantments:

Piercing - Cuts through more than one enemy.

Plentiful - Has a chance of not using an arrow when shot

Venom - Poisons target (lasts about as long as a cave spider's poison)

Flight - Arrows fall much slower, thus traveling farther

Haste - Shorter arrow charge time

Bugs

 * Enchantments are disabled/do not work in Beta 1.9 Pre-release 3's SMP. If a player attempts to enchant an item, it will appear enchanted for the client, but will update with the unenchanted status once the player logs out and then back in again.
 * If you shift click an item into the enchanting table the game will crash. (In both creative and survival modes)
 * The enchantment Table Block breaks with a single punch with an empty hand. This is most likely not intended since it is made of obsidian.
 * Breaking the enchantment Table Block by hand seems to destroy it permanently, losing the diamonds and obsidian needed to make it.
 * When playing on a Beta 1.9 pre-release 3 server, if an enchantment table is broken and replaced with another Tile Entity block, the enchantment table's book will continue to be rendered on the client, and activating it will crash the client.
 * When holding an enchanted item above the book graphic in the enchantment GUI, the "glimmer" of the item reacts to it, showing the glimmer in a square, in the empty space around the item.

Trivia

 * Notch commented on Reddit "Oh, it's more magical than that! It automatically opens up and turns towards players who get close to it. When nobody is around, the book is closed and spins slowly."
 * Notch comments on other book animations. "Yes, the pages flip randomly every now and then."
 * On October 1st 2011, Notch tweeted an image of the enchantment screen, with enchantments written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet. The first enchantment translates onto "Well Played Internets You Are Good", the second translated into "These Names Will Be Random And Confusing", and the third translates to "Each Spell Costs Experience Levels". The Standard Galactic Alphabet or SGA was originally created by Tom Hall for use in the Commander Keen series of computer games.
 * Although the bottom texture would at first glance appear to be the obsidian texture, it is in fact slightly different.