God book

God books are books held in place of a shield. A player first receives a Damaged book and needs to add 4 torn pages to make a complete god book: Saradomin's holy book, Guthix's book of balance, or Zamorak's unholy book. With an update on 4 August 2010, players can also obtain god books of Armadyl, Bandos, and Zaros. Illuminated god books can be created after completing One Piercing Note. They require level 30 Prayer to equip.

You cannot remove the pages from your chosen god book.

Types of god books
''The table below uses real-time market prices. For more information, or to update outdated prices, see Grand Exchange Market Watch/Treasure Trails.''

Obtaining the books
In the quest Horror from the Deep, you will receive a "Rusty casket". Speak to Jossik about this chest, and he will ask you to read what the chest says. You can choose from the three main gods: Saradomin, Guthix, Zamorak. After you have completed one of the three books, you may purchase either the two you did not receive, or choose from the other three gods: Armadyl, Bandos, and Zaros. You can only obtain the Ancient book after completing The Dig Site quest.

For whichever god you choose, you will get a "Damaged book" of that god. When wielded, this book provides +2 to Prayer. However, this is not the book's true potential. Torn pages that are missing from your Damaged book can be found and put back in to complete the book.

You can acquire torn pages by completing Treasure Trails, cremating Vyre Corpses in the Columbarium, or by buying them from other players, either directly or via the Grand Exchange. Torn pages are unique to each god's book. Once you have added all four torn pages, it becomes a new book depending on which god it is for. Saradomin's damaged book becomes a Saradomin's Book of Wisdom, Guthix's damaged book becomes Guthix's Book of Balance, Zamorak's damaged book becomes Zamorak's Book of Chaos, Zaros' damaged book becomes an Ancient book, Bandos' damaged book becomes Bandos's Book of War and Armadyl's damaged book becomes Armadyl's Book of Law.

There are some disputes on the RuneScape Forums concerning the ability to remove pages from the book, as over the months the prices for certain pages have increased dramatically. However, Jagex has stated that they will not add the ability to remove pages, citing price drops as a repercussion.

Once you choose a damaged book, you have to complete it before you can claim another. This can be frustrating if you chose a Zamorak book not realizing that it is much more expensive to complete than the others.

After the quest One Piercing Note, all completed books can be illuminated - creating a copy with increased bonuses, and an additional +2 prayer (to a total of +4). Illuminating a book requires 60 Prayer and Crafting, and gives 10,000 Prayer and Crafting the first time a book is illuminated (for a total of 60,000 experience to each skill for all 6 books).

Losing a god book
If a player loses their God book, they can go back to Jossik who will have found it "on the shore" and get it back for free, complete with pages that have been added.

There is currently a bug which allows you to have one completed and one Damaged book of the same kind (Two completed if you add pages to the second) First you need to go to Jossik, with a inventory of a Damaged Book and all four pages. Drop the book at the floor then ask him for a new one, if you try to pick it up it will say "You only need one unfinished book". Add all four pages to the book in your inventory when its complete pick up the unfinished and as a result you will have two books of the same kind.

Trivia

 * On the first day of release, players were able to buy all 3 books from Jossik without completing each book. It is unknown if this was a glitch or intentional by Jagex.
 * After completion of Horror from the Deep, you may only choose one of the three main gods' books; to obtain the three new gods' books, you must complete one of the other god's books.
 * The Zamorak's unholy is by far the most expensive book to complete; at it costs more than all the other books combined . This price is due to it having the highest offensive bonuses of all books, and prior to the introduction of defenders it was also the highest Melee attack bonus item in the shield slot.
 * Preaching from a god book used to cost the player 25% of the special attack bar. Since the Evolution of Combat brought about the end of special attacks, players instead lose 10 prayer points when preaching from a god book. This includes not just the "preach" option, but the last rites, blessings and wedding ceremonies as well.
 * After an unknown update, all but one preach has been removed from god books.
 * The God books are written by the followers of the gods, and aren't official dictates by the gods themselves. This makes them inaccurate with some truth.
 * On 17 December, 2013, the god books were updated with new text relating to the 6th Age.