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A Bookshelf serves to enhance an Enchantment Table, as a decoration, or as an inefficient furnace fuel. Bookshelves naturally occur in "libraries" inside strongholds, and NPC villages. Breaking a bookshelf will drop 3 books.

Crafting

A single Bookshelf can be crafted by arranging six wooden planks and three books in the pattern below:

Ingredients Input » Output
Wooden Planks + Books Template:Grid/Crafting Table

Properties

A bookshelf has two textures: one borrowed from the plank block put on the top and bottom of the block, and one edited version of the plank texture put on all four sides.

As one bookshelf requires three books, books require three sheets of paper, and paper requires one sugar cane per sheet (crafted in batches of three), nine sugar canes are necessary for each bookshelf block. If sugar cane is allowed to grow to its full height before harvesting and only the top two segments are removed, then nine sugar cane plants will provide enough for two bookshelves, or 9/2 × 64 = 288 plants (plus 96 logs for the wood) for a full stack of 64 bookshelves in one harvest.

Bookshelves can be destroyed fairly easily by hand, but quicker using an axe. In either case, they will drop 3 books when destroyed, allowing the reconstruction of the bookshelf with the addition of six Wooden Planks.

Bookshelves will catch on fire, so make sure you place them in a safe area away from fire and lava.

Use

Bookshelves are used to gain access to higher level enchantments when using the enchanting table. If an enchanting table is placed nearby, glyphs will fly towards it from the bookshelf in a manner similar to nether portal particles. To get the highest boost, you need 30 bookshelves, which means 90 books and 180 planks, or 270 sugar cane and 45 logs.

History

Previosly [version needed] bookshelves had random quotes when right clicked. This has since been removed sometime in early Beta [citation needed]

Gallery

Retired Modes

This is a list of characteristics of Bookshelves in previous game modes.

  • Beta - Can be freely placed. Drops nothing (pre-1.9pre3) and can't be used to obtain higher level enchantments.
  • Alpha - Same as Beta, can't be used to obtain higher level enchantments (enchantments did not exist) and drops nothing.
  • Survival Test - Impossible to obtain without loading a pre-edited map. Destroyed in explosions. When mined drops nothing.
  • Indev - Same as Survival Test and Infdev. Cannot be crafted.
  • Infdev - Same as Survival Test and Indev. Cannot be crafted.
  • Classic - Can be freely placed.
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