How to make bookshelves in Minecraft: Crafting recipe and complete video guide

Bookshelves are essential in Minecraft for higher-tier enchantments, crafting lecterns, and making your library builds feel alive. Whether you’re playing on a PC, console, or Chromebook, we’ll review all the current methods to obtain bookshelves and their recently added variant: the chiseled bookshelf.

How to craft bookshelves in Minecraft

To craft bookshelves in Minecraft, the process is simple and requires only two ingredients:

• First, you need three books. To craft a book, use three pieces of paper and one piece of leather in a 2 x 2 crafting grid.
• Next, you need six wooden planks, which are crafted from logs. You can use any type of wood.
• Once you have gathered the ingredients, approach a crafting table and arrange the books to fill the middle row of the grid.
• Place the planks in the top and bottom rows. The plank types can vary without affecting the quantity required.
• This will create one bookshelf block.

Note that the plank type has no effect on the appearance of the bookshelf block; regardless of the planks used in the crafting process, the texture will always resemble oak wood.

How to craft chiseled bookshelves in Minecraft

Chiseled bookshelves are a relatively new variant added in version 1.20. Unlike traditional bookshelves, which appear to be filled with ‘fake’ books, chiseled bookshelves allow you to store up to six books of any type. To craft them:

• Use a total of six plank blocks of any wood variety.
• Place these planks in the top and bottom rows of a 3×3 crafting table grid. Instead of books, the middle row should contain three wooden slabs, which can be of any wood type.

This recipe produces a single chiseled bookshelf. Note that chiseled bookshelves cannot be found in any structure in the wild; crafting them as described is the only way to obtain them.

How to get bookshelves from strongholds

Bookshelves are not guaranteed to spawn in every stronghold, but each stronghold can generate up to two library rooms. These rooms are valuable not only for accessing The End but also for collecting bookshelves in large quantities. To successfully gather bookshelves from a stronghold, you will need:

• A tool with the Silk Touch enchantment. Without this enchantment, breaking a bookshelf will only yield books, not the bookshelf block itself. An axe is the fastest tool for mining bookshelves.
• Craft Eyes of Ender using an ender pearl and blaze powder. When thrown, these eyes will guide you toward the nearest stronghold by floating in its direction. Follow them until they start descending into the ground, indicating that you are directly above the stronghold.

Strongholds are large and complex structures that can be difficult to navigate. Thoroughly explore every corner to locate the library rooms.

How to get bookshelves from woodland mansions

Strongholds are not the only structures that feature large library rooms; giant woodland mansions also contain them. These buildings are somewhat rare, so the best way to locate one is through a cartographer villager:

• Buy an exploration map from a villager who has reached at least journeyman status.
• Use the map to navigate to the mansion. Use the F3 debug screen to determine your direction.

Like with strongholds, library rooms in mansions are not guaranteed to spawn, but given their size and the number of rooms, the odds are quite good. These libraries can vary from small reading rooms to large, spacious bookshelf rooms, offering even more blocks than those found in strongholds.

Remember that to harvest bookshelves intact, you’ll need a tool enchanted with Silk Touch; otherwise, they will only drop books.

How to get bookshelves from villager trading

Novice-tier librarians have a chance of selling bookshelves, starting at nine emeralds. As such, it’s a rather expensive way to acquire the blocks in bulk, but great for leveling up villagers to higher tiers.

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