Enchanted Book

An Enchanted Book is an item which allows players to add enchantments to weapons, tools, or armor by combining the enchantment book with one of said items on an anvil. The player can create an enchanted book by enchanting a book on an enchantment table. It is a book with the enchantment "glow" and a red ribbon.

The Enchanted Book will appear in a dungeon chest, as well as a Stronghold, Mineshaft or Village chest. Apparently some of these chests will contain unobtainable enchantments (to be confirmed).

Effective combinations
Here is the list of the unregular, effective combination of enchantments and items.

Bugs

 * There was a bug that allowed enchanted books to enchant any item in the game. This was fixed for Survival, however, in 12w50a you can enchant items again but only limited to creative mode. It was stated this bug will stay in creative mode.

Trivia

 * You can enchant any block or item with any enchantments in Creative mode with the use of Enchanted Books and the Anvil.
 * Enchanted Books allow players to get normally unobtainable enchantments in Survival such as Silk Touch on Shears or Unbreaking on a Sword.
 * Enchanted Books can be found within the chests of Generated Structures.