How to Make a Lectern in Minecraft With Ease

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If you are a gamer who is also a bookworm, you would love to know that Minecraft supports the hobby of reading books. In Minecraft’s Bedrock Edition, you have bookshelves you can set up together with your enchanting table to spruce up your reading room or magical library. But what is better than those is a block that lets you read books — the lectern in Minecraft.

Want to obtain a lectern in the game? While you can explore and figure out how to get it, it is easier when you have a quick guide. So, we will show you how to find or make a lectern in Minecraft and the various ways you can use it.

 

Inside This Article

  1. What is a Minecraft Lectern?
  2. How to Get or Craft a Lectern in Minecraft
    1. Searching for a Lectern
    2. Making a Lectern from Scratch
  3.  What Are the Different Uses of a Minecraft Lectern?

 

What is a Minecraft Lectern?

A Minecraft lectern is a must for reading books
Photo by u/ANIBALmessi on Reddit

Before everything else, we will help you familiarize yourself quickly with the said block. If you have just started your sandbox adventure or have not seen a lectern in Minecraft yet, know that the item resembles and functions like a real-life lectern.

The lectern looks like the real thing it is inspired by more than a simple block, having a shelf compartment on its body and a flat top for an open book. The lectern is primarily for storing and reading books and is usually the preferred centerpiece of an in-game reading or study room.

 

How to Get or Craft a Lectern in Minecraft

Like many blocks, you can own a lectern in Minecraft in two ways: get it from the in-game world or craft it from scratch.

Searching for a Lectern

Let’s tackle how to find a Minecraft lectern first because it only requires a bit of patience and luck. Here, you do not need to scour for and process raw materials. Follow these steps:

1. Visit a random village in the Minecraft world.
2. Check out if the village has libraries (cobblestone and wood structures with bookshelves inside).

Libraries could have lecterns inside
Photo by u/GodlyLime222 on Reddit

3. If there is at least one library, enter it.
4. Search every nook and cranny of the library for a lectern.
5. Once you spot a lectern, stand in front of it.
6. Use a tool to mine it (preferably an axe to save more time).
7. Collect the lectern and any book it might have dropped.

 

Making a Lectern From Scratch

If you are having trouble finding a Minecraft lectern, the workaround is to make it. Here’s how:

1. Access your crafting table.
*If you do not have this block yet, make it from four wood planks via your 2×2 crafting menu.
2. On the 3×3 crafting grid, put a bookshelf in the center box.
*If you need to make a bookshelf first, fill the middle row with books (get from strongholds and villages or craft via three paper and one leather) and put wood planks (mine from trees) in the remaining slots.
3. Add three planks of the same wood species on the row above the bookshelf.
4. Add one more plank directly below the placed bookshelf, like in the photo below.

Lectern Recipe
Screenshot from minecraft-crafting.net

5. Wait for the Minecraft lectern to be available on the right output slot.
6. Transfer the lectern to any storage slot below the grid.

 

What Are the Different Uses of a Minecraft Lectern?

The lectern is a versatile block in Minecraft. It has multiple functions, so it is fun to use in the game. Let’s get to its uses, shall we?

1. Lets You and Other Players Read Written Books

Writing and reading books is possible in the game
Photo from Minecraft.net

A lectern in Minecraft Bedrock Edition can store a written book, a type of book featuring up to 50 pages of your written content. To place or read the said book, hit the lectern with or without the written book on hand. Other players can do the same if they want to check out the book you wrote. The latter is possible when you are playing Minecraft cross-platform or with friends who are also on mobile.

The lectern can also keep a “book and quill”, the type of book that does not contain custom text yet. The blank item only changes into a written book once you have written something on it (by long-pressing on the screen and then inputting your text).

As of writing, the Minecraft lectern can only keep the mentioned types of books. Enchanted books, like regular books, should be on bookshelves instead.

 

2. Makes Your Villagers Librarians

A librarian works using a lectern in Minecraft
Photo from minecraft.net

If a smithing table converts villagers into toolsmiths, the lectern in Minecraft can turn them into librarians. For the role change to happen, you have to put the lectern near a villager who does not have a job yet or whose job site block you have broken already. Once the villager claims the lectern, the character becomes a librarian and will use the lectern at times. The character can also offer trades involving enchanted books or enchantments.

The only scenario where the lectern cannot change the role is when the character is a nitwit. Nothing can force a nitwit to take on a job anymore.

 

3. Emits Redstone Signal Useful for Contraptions

Curious about how player-invented contraptions can open doors or move blocks? Redstone signals are the secret to that. Coming from various Minecraft items, they are like electrical charges that run to a certain distance to trigger contraptions.

Like Redstone dust, a lectern in Minecraft can emit a Redstone signal. That happens when you flip a page on the book on the lectern. Thus, it is no wonder the lectern is usually part of players’ mechanisms for entering their customized secret passages.

 

4. Produces Sound

Note block
Photo from Minecraft.net

Some Minecraft utility blocks can carry a tune when note blocks are on top of them. Among those blocks is the lectern in Minecraft. When the lectern is under a note block and the setup is hit, it yields a bass sound. Thus, it is useful when you want to play a whole song in the game.

 

5. Fuels the Smelting Process

Adding a lectern to an empty fuel slot is possible
Photo by u/landophant on Reddit

The lectern is not a rare block in Minecraft; you can find more than one as you scour the blocky in-game world or make as many as you want. And if you have a surplus of lecterns just lying around, you will find it convenient that the block is useable as fuel.

Yes, a Minecraft lectern is not your conventional fuel source. Nonetheless, using it to fire up your furnace is wise; you do not waste any of your blocks. Also, each lectern you consume in smelting helps yield one item (and half of it), which is not bad compared to other fuel sources that need to be in big amounts just to churn out a whole thing.

 

6. Doubles as Building Materials, Other Furniture, and More

A Minecraft lectern can be used in unique ways
Photo by u/chaoscraft21 on Reddit

If you are creative enough, you can make a Minecraft lectern into other wooden items in the game. Some examples players have already come up with are staircases and archways (multiple lecterns stacked diagonally and vertically, respectively). The sky’s the limit for creations if your imagination is also limitless.

 

What Will You Use Your Lectern For?

A lectern in Minecraft lets you read and share books, have more librarians you can trade with, make your library look more authentic, and do more things. That is why it is so interesting. Now that you have made a lectern, what will you use it for? Feel free to let us know of your unique ideas and creations!