How to get and use enchanted books in Minecraft

To improve their inventory, Minecraft players explore dangerous parts of the world, where they often come across ferocious mobs. Along with tools and weapons made with rare minerals, having good enchantments on them helps deal with these hostile creatures.

Enchanting in Minecraft is a game mechanic that allows players to apply certain enchantments to their tools, armor, weapons, and a few other items. There are a wide variety of enchantments in the game that can be acquired and applied in a handful of ways.

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All you need to know about enchanted books in Minecraft

Typically, Minecraft players begin their enchantment journey with an enchanting table.

An enchanting table is a craftable block that offers various enchantments to the items that are placed on it. Players will need lapis lazuli, a few experience levels, and an enchantable item to use it.

Another way of enchanting, which some would argue is more convenient, is using enchanted books.

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How to obtain enchanted books

A librarian offering an enchanted book (Image via Mojang)

If the enchanting table does not offer a useful enchantment for any of the players' items, they can place a book on the table to enchant it and reset the offers.

Books are craftable items that can be obtained by placing three papers and a piece of leather on the crafting table. The enchanted book can later be used to apply the enchantment it has on an item.

Some of the best sources of enchanted books are librarians, as they can offer rare enchantments. To get better enchantments, players can also break and place a librarian's lectern again and again to reset their trade offers.

This will only work if the librarian's trades are yet to be locked. For those unaware, trading once with a librarian locks their trades and breaking their lectern will not reset them.

Fishing and looting the chests of certain structures can also provide enchanted books, but the chances are awfully low.

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How to use enchanted books in Minecraft

Applying an enchantment to a diamond pickaxe (Image via Mojang)

The anvil enchants an item with the enchantment of an enchanted book when the book and the item are placed on it. Anvils can sometimes be found in villages and can also be crafted. The crafting ingredients of an anvil are three blocks of iron and four iron ingots.

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How to disenchant an item

Disenchanting using a grindstone (Image via Mojang)

A lot of the time, Minecraft players find a better or higher-level enchantment or something that is mutually exclusive with an enchantment on their item. In these cases, they can use grindstone to remove enchantments from an item and enchant it with whatever they wish.

Grindstone, for those unaware, is a craftable block that requires two planks, two sticks, and a stone slab to be crafted. If an item has multiple enchantments, it will lose all of them upon disenchantment. It is worth noting that grindstone cannot remove curses, such as the Curse of Vanishing enchantment.