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Books are Wickerbottom's special ability. She can make many different kinds of books, each with its own special power. Each book has multiple uses but will always affect sanity .
Birds of the World[]
The Birds of the World is one of the first books made by Wickerbottom. It can summon 20 to 30 birds and has a max of 3 uses and drains 50 sanity. Allowing you to summon up to 90 birds, as you might imagine, it can be used in a variety of ways to get an advantage, such as, hunting them or capturing them. This book also works very well in combination with the Pan Flute or Sleepytime Stories as they can be used to put all the birds to sleep allow you to easily capture them and create a large bird farm or slaughter them for a huge amount of meat and feathers.
Since birds are considered innocent creatures, killing a bird adds points to the player's naughtiness level: a Red Bird or Snowbird adds two, a Crow adds one point. This can cause Krampus to appear, which could be quite handy if you are attempting to acquire a Krampus Sack since you can kill many birds in a small time period. Otherwise, the player should avoid killing too many of the summoned birds.
Applied Horticulture[]
This book allows the reader to grow Crops, Plants, and advance Trees another step in their life cycle instantly in all seasons except winter. It should be noted that reading it will not cause newly planted Pine Cones to instantly grow into trees, but rather cause current trees to grow into bigger forms. During Winter, it will only work on trees, not on unfertilized crops or plants. This is very useful for starting or expanding Farms. It has 5 uses and 30 range, and costs 33 sanity to use.
Sleepytime Stories[]
Cause animals to sleep. It has 5 uses and 30 range with a sanity drain of 33. Mobs will be put into a deeper sleep than usual, allowing the player to move closer to them without waking them up, for example the Tallbird. It's also useful for shaving Beefalo and fighting off the occasional waves of Hounds.
If a mob that is put to sleep is attacked, all of the nearby mobs will wake up after a couple of seconds. Mobs sometimes sleep all day after they have been put to sleep. This is very similar to the Pan Flute as they both have the same power, but while the flute lasts longer and has a shorter casting time, it is ultimately non-renewable.
The End is Nigh![]
This book's power is to cause 16 consecutive Lightning strikes in a large ring around Wickerbottom. It has 5 uses and 3 to 15 range, draining sanity by 33 per use. It goes without saying that this book was built for battle as it's the most powerful weapon in Wickerbottom's arsenal. It calls down lightning which, in addition to doing damage, also lights enemies on fire, causing them to panic. Caution should be used, however, as the book can easily cause fires, and its effects are completely nullified around Lightning Rods. The rain caused by using the book can also increase the sanity toll caused by the book. As such, it is probably wise to obtain an Umbrella before using this book.
In Reign of Giants & Shipwrecked DLCs, The lightning from The End is Nigh! can strike Wickerbottom. It is advised to use clothing that provides lightning protection, such as an Eyebrella or Rain Coat (RoG), or a Dumbrella or Snakeskin Jacket (SW).
In Don't Starve Together, this book can be used to trigger a WX-78's system overload power multiple times.
On Tentacles[]
This book creates 3 Tentacles and has 5 uses and 3 to 8 range, costing 50 sanity per use. It can be used for defense, due to the tentacles' ability to attack, or simply to obtain a Tentacle Spike. Additionally, this allows you to have Tentacles outside of the Marsh Biome. It can be used to fight Hounds, however the tentacles are slow and unable to hit them if the hounds run out of their range. However, it works on other mobs, such as Spiders (making this item great for farming spider loot) and even bosses, such as Moose/Goose and Bearger. It can even be used to protect the user's base if used correctly.
Joy of Volcanology[]
This book is the replacement for On Tentacles in the Shipwrecked DLC. The book works similarily to the Volcano Staff, but only spawns Dragoon Eggs. It has 5 uses, and is the only book with NO SANITY COST. When used correctly, they will rain down from the sky, and work similarily to The End is Nigh. Since the eggs deal a whopping 300 damage, they can be used as a substitute for gunpowder in the sleep & die method for bosses (Sleep them with pan flute or Sleepytime Stories, then place down an item for whopping damage, Old Bell/Stack of Gunpowder).
By comparison, Wickerbottom can also farm Obsidian, Rocks, Flint, Ashes, Charcoal, and most of all, Dragoons. Using this method, Obsidian for many of the Volcanic Tab items can be created fairly easily. If so, the player can possibly mass-produce said items, and become incredibly powerful.
It should be known that the book should be not read in one's base or structures one has built, since the impact or the burning of the Eggs will cause major damage to structures.