Books are items craftable by Wickerbottom. They can be read several times at the cost of sanity to trigger several type of events. Only Wickerbottom can use the books, although Maxwell has to pay a higher sanity penalty.
Player can continue reading the books even at 0 sanity without paying any additional sanity cost. Players may use any of the standard ways to regain Sanity, consign themselves to fighting shadow creatures.
Birds of the World calls 20 to 30 Birds to land between 1.5 and 3 Tiles. It does not work during Hurricane Season in the Shipwrecked DLC. The type of spawned Birds depends on the season and turf the birds land on.
Birds of the World may need to be combined with Sleepytime Stories, ideally right before the night so the birds remain asleep for the duration of the night and not just duration of the book. The birds may also be frozen with Ice Flingomatics. There are also other sleepless way of killing, such as Winona's catapults.
This book is good for farming Krampus and Feathers when a proper farm is made on the Lunar Island.
Applied Horticulture grows crops and plants within 7.5 Tiles instantly, while Trees grow one stage every use. It does not work on unfertilized or withered crops or plants. Some plants, such as grass, do not grow in Winter.
Sleepytime Stories
Exclusive to:
“Strange, it's just 500 pages of telegraph codes.”
Sleepytime Stories causes Mobs within 7.5 Tiles to fall asleep about 2 seconds after reading. The duration of sleep depends on the target and the effect is broken when it is attacked.
Sleepytime Stories can be used instead of the Pan Flute, for example for shaving Beefalos during the day and during mating season, calming Dragonfly, stopping Bee Queen's attacks and beetles, stopping Depths Worm and Hound attacks, slowing down or completely stopping most boss and giants attacks or stealing guarded items from Set Pieces.
On Tentacles creates up to 3 Tentacles between 3m to 8m. Less tentacles are created when there are more obstructions in the spawning zone. Burnt structures, destroyed walls, trees, a boulder or another tentacle are examples of obstructions.
Tentacles from On Tentacles generally produces more Tentacle Spots than it consumes. They are also a source of Tentacle Spikes, a great melee weapon.
The book can be used to build defenses or traps, as the Tentacles are hostile to most Mobs in the game. Tentacle pits can be built by having a ring of tree stumps and safely reading On Tentacles 15-21 times in that ring.
The End is Nigh!
Exclusive to:
“The beginning was dull, but got better near the end.”
The End is Nigh! generates 16 consecutive Lightning strikes between 0.75 and 3.75 tiles.
In the Reign of Giants (RoG) and Shipwrecked (SW) DLCs, any bolt of lightning from The End is Nigh! can strike Wickerbottom when used. The player should consider wearing lightning insulated clothing, such as the Eyebrella (RoG), Snakeskin Jacket/Hat (SW), or the Dumbrella (SW).
Joy of Volcanology
Exclusive to:
“The foreword just says "Hope you like dragoons."”
Joy of Volcanology creates 4 Dragoon Eggs falling at the player's location. It replaces "On Tentacles" in the Don't Starve: Shipwrecked DLC. Joy of Volcanology has the same functionality as the Volcano Staff, except it is less precise.
Fallen Dragoon Eggs sometimes create Lava Pools on the ground. When Lava pools burn out they leave behind Rocks , Ash and Charcoal. Lava Pools can be extinguished directly with Ice, which leaves behind a single Obsidian instead. This allows Wickerbottom to easily farm Rocks, Charcoal and Obsidian.
Tips
Wickerbottom's perk does not synergize with effect of The Everything Encyclopedia. Therefore, both her and other survivors will require at least Science Machine to prototype tier two magic items.
Trivia
The text "Ia! Ia!" in the description for The End is Nigh! refers to the phrase "Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!", a chant from the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft.
The sanity reduction from reading possibly could suggest that these books contain knowledge which humans were never meant to know, similar to the Necronomicon and Pnakotic Manuscripts from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Although Wurt can gain sanity by reading some of the books, this is likely because she reads them for personal enjoyment rather than to utilize possibly forbidden magic.
According to Wilson in Don't Starve Together, Sleepytime Stories is "just 500 pages of telegraph codes". This implies that the book bores those affected to sleep.
Sleepytime Stories and The End is Nigh! were originally named Bedtime Stories and Conflagration respectively.[1]
Previously, Don't Starve Together also featured the book "Applied Horticulture", but with the Reap What You Sow update, which redesigned the farming system, it was replaced by the book "Horticulture, Abridged".
When Wickerbottom inspects "Birds of the World", she mentions the Western Screech Owl. This is a reference to the mod the developers made titled The Screecher.
Several characters introduced with the Hamlet DLC have unimplemented quotes for Wickerbottom's books:
Wagstaff: Birds of the World ("I cannot access the knowledge within it. How frustrating!"), Applied Horticulture ("Much more than a collection of facts."), Sleepytime Stories ("Is this ink imbued with dark fuel?! Fascinating!"), On Tentacles ("What prevents me from using this?"), The End is Nigh! ("Oh, I do wish I could access its power.").
Wheeler: Birds of the World ("Will it help me get back in the air?"), Applied Horticulture ("I'm not digging this one."), Sleepytime Stories ("A sleeper hit."), On Tentacles ("I'm guessing it's not a children's book."), The End is Nigh! ("Feel good story of the year.").
Webber's comment on "Practical Rain Rituals" may be a reference to the superstition that killing a spider will make it rain. Less likely it references the Aztecs ritually sacrificing children to The Rain God, hoping for rain. Few other characters reference the use of a ritual.
Since Applied Horticulture was previously present in Don't Starve Together, character quotes remain in the files. Most of them do not differ in any way from the original game, except for the presence of quotes from exclusive characters and a modified Warly quote