Bookbinding - What are you writing?

[Catmungandr]

So I am on a multiplayer server and once of the things I was is to give bookbinding a try and make a library. As part of this I have written some short in character "chapters" for my character's Memoirs. We also have the boardgame mod so I'll probably copy in some basic rulebooks for various games so people can learn in game to. I'll probably make some "prop books" too, titling them as references but not put much in them; The Necronomicon, The Silt Verses, The Book of Vile Darkness, The Book of Exhalted Deeds, The Voynich Manuscript, The Owl By Daylight by Philip K. Dick, The Declaration of Deeds, The King in Yellow, The Enchiridion, etc.

 

What about the rest of you who bookbind? Are you satisfied for them to be purely ornamental or do you write in them too? And for the ornamental ones what names do you go for? Maybe if people wanted to we could share them somewhere so people can copy into their own books and proliferate copies between worlds.

[Tom Cantine]

I've been a bit prolific writing books in the multiplayer server I'm on. The first one I "published" (basically started selling copies on the Auction House) details the dimensions of a seraph, along with how I made these measurements. I figured that information might be useful to other players in chiselling stuff like furniture. So it's a reference work.

I've also done one on the movement of the stars around the sky and how I made the measurements to calculate the celestial poles, except that's all obsolete since the update, so I have to do a bunch more astronomical observation and calculation. I've written a few on what I guess you could call philosophy, one that's also kind of a primer on panning, and I've recruited other players to contribute to original research (within the game world) into agriculture, weather, geology and so on. 

In time I expect we'll have collected and archived books codifying rules for some of the various player settlements on the server. Could be stuff like building codes and standards, contracts and receipts, correspondence and so on. Since the server's on all the time but most players aren't, dropping written parchments into claimed hopper mailboxes is a nice solution.

I plan to write more how-to guides covering things that aren't in the handbook, sharing little efficiency tricks you pick up by playing for a while. Stuff like strategies to optimize smithing so it uses as little hammer durability as possible. And I'm sure there must be a market for cookbooks.

[Egon]

The only book I wrote something in, is my smelting book. I put the number of bits to get the ratios and max full ingots in a full crucible. So i can look it up in game instead of on a spreadsheet, I kind of liked that.

Edited August 31, 2025 by Egon
Spelling

[Facethief]

The day I make a book is the day I complete my goals for my world. I am direly short on flax most of the time, so my bookshelf lays empty.

[labtop 215]

I keep a notebook that I use to record things like the date of the last anomaly, when I planted crops, when I last feed my animals and so on.  I also keep notes on what my current plans are for when I stop playing, as I often lose track of what I was doing otherwise.

[Catmungandr]

Would any of you be open to trading?

[DeSaerth]

I've got a notebook with a todo list and notes like; collect resin, which crop got heat damadged in summer, when the fruit trees fruited, and when pregnancies start. Plus a journal of the big events, notably the resonance archives.

 

On 9/1/2025 at 3:59 AM, Facethief said:

The day I make a book is the day I complete my goals for my world. I am direly short on flax most of the time, so my bookshelf lays empty.

You can make parchment out of small pelts, after soaking them in lime/borax, scrape them with a knife and then cut them with shears.

[Facethief]

1 hour ago, DeSaerth said:

You can make parchment out of small pelts, after soaking them in lime/borax, scrape them with a knife and then cut them with shears.

If we’re being realistic, that’s the only way to make parchment. Of course, nobody thinks paper when they think medieval stationery.

 But on a more serious note, I hadn’t thought of that. I definitely have enough hides…

[Never Jhonsen]

Something I started over a decade ago in that other block game, was making a daily journal of what I did that day.

And while it's taken my quite a bit longer in Vintage Story to get set up, I've been doing the same in my current world Just write a bit down right before bed, like a late-night retelling of the day's adventures

[lastwazy]

I was thinking of seeing if I could find enough medieval recipes to put into a cookbook. It wouldn't be info applicable to the game but I think a few genuine recipe books would be cute decoration for my kitchen!

Plant/mushroom identification guides would be a fun idea too, especially as a practical book a library might lend out... although this is also just for show since the game tells you what everything is anyways lol