75 Best Book Riddles

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Did you know riddles are a fun way to help enrich a child’s imagination? These book riddles will provide entertainment for every age and will be great conversation starters. Check them out and discover how many you can solve on your own.

red, blue, and green books on green background with white text "Book riddles"

Riddles are a great way to get brains engaged and thinking and are great at filling the gap when your kids need to step away from screens and are looking for something else to do. 

Riddles are great for all ages and all skill levels.  The answers may be on the tip of your tongue while others will require a little extra time to figure out. You can find more riddle fun with our Disney Riddles and  Space Riddles. 

red, blue, and green books on green background with white text "Book riddles"

Why I love Riddles

Riddles are great for brain exercise.  They help us focus on the problem, use our problem-solving skills, understand new words, and use logic in solving the riddle.  Most of all, riddles are a fun way to gather with friends and family to test what you know, build connections, and have some fun. 

Benefits of Riddles 

There are so many benefits to solving riddles. They help

  • Improve concentration levels
  • Increase problem-solving skills
  • Help develop memory skills
  • Foster critical thinking
  • Increases creativity

Best Book Riddles

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  • Q: What did one math book say to the other math book? Do you want to hear my problems?
  • Q: Where do bedtime books sleep? Under their covers.
  • Q: What English word has three consecutive double letters? Bookkeeper.
  • Q: What building has the most stories? The library.
  • Q: A teacher is yelling, she closes the door, the window, and a book. What did she forget to close? Her mouth.
  • Q: My life is often a volume of grief, your help is needed to turn a new leaf. Stiff is my spine and my body is pale, but I’m always ready to tell a tale. What am I? A book!
  • Q: What has a spine, but no bones? A book.
  • Q: I am the shell of something interesting. My front is very eye-catching but my inside tells all. What am I? A book.
  • Q: What did one math book say to another? I have so many problems.
  • Q: My numbers may vary, thin as a sheet, take one away, and we’re just not complete. What am I? A book.
  • Q: There were 5 children in a room. Iris drew a picture, Barry played video games, Andrew played chess, and Trina read a book. What is the fifth child, Mindy, doing? Mindy is playing chess with Andrew. You can’t play chess alone!
  • Q: Why did everybody like to go out to eat with the librarian? She could always book a reservation.
  • Q: What are the smartest creatures? Bookworms.
  • Q: Where do books sleep? Between their covers.
  • Q: I wiggled and cannot see, sometimes underground and sometimes on a tree. I really don’t want to be on a hook, and I become a person when combined with a book. What am I? Worm
  • Q: I have 10 books and I label them with their number. I take seven out to read. How many books are left? 9! You have taken the book with the label seven!
  • Q: Four legs I do have, yet I never walk. I work not, yet I have food. All the food I get, none do I eat but you do. I cannot read yet many times I’m found with books. I am only but a carpenter’s work. What am I? A table.
  • Q: What is the highest public building in your city? The library has the most stories.
  • Q: I sit here collecting dust, I can wait forever to open me and you will not be disappointed, I can make you laugh, cry, and sad, I contain all the knowledge of the world, let me take you to a faraway land. What am I? A book.
  • Q: There once was a book that was only owned by the wealthy, but now everyone can have it. You can’t buy it in a bookstore or take it from a library. What book is it? A telephone book.
  • Q: Don’t judge a book by its cover. What is the contradictory proverb? A telephone book.
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  • Q: What makes “Book, Box, and Noon” the same? There are all nouns.
  • Q: I am very important to all living creatures. I was firstborn in the sun. I am a chapter in textbooks and I am not made of fire. I make the sun-worthy. Too much of me may kill you. But humans can still prevent me. What am I? Heat!
  • Q: Why were the notebooks afraid to go to college? Because the College ruled notebooks!
  • Q: I am the king’s, given by the people; Used by the king, on the people who gave him; everyone obeys him because he has me. What am I? Authority!
  • Q: What is that which has many leaves, but no stem? A book.
  • Q: A color is seen on a stoplight, an item you use to eliminate the darkness. What comic book character is it? Green Lantern.
  • Q: There’s a land where there are mummies and daddies but no babies. Books but no libraries. Mirrors but no reflections. Kittens but no cats. Cattle but no cows. Lollipops but no candy and trees but no forests. It’s the land of what? The land of double letters.
  • Q: Tara has $29.00 dollars. She bought 4 coloring books that cost $3.00 each, and 4 boxes of Crayola crayons that cost $2.00 each. She spends the rest of her money on markers. How much money did she spend on markers? She spent $9.00 on markers.
  • Q: A book costs $1 plus half its price. How much does it cost? $2
  • Q: My first is high, My second damp, My whole a tie, A writer’s cramp. What am I? Hyphen. The first two lines yield high-fen. A hyphen is used by a writer to tie (or cramp) two words together.
  • Q: What has words but never speaks? A book.
  • Q: My son was playing with a book and tore out pages 7, 8, 100, 101, 222, and 223. How many pages were torn out? 10.
  • Q: What did the wall say to the bookcase? I’ll meet you at the corner.
  • Q: What do aliens like to read? Comet books.
  • Q: How do you reach a book in an emergency room? Call its pager.
  • Q: What did the robber say when he stole from the bookstore? “I had better book it out of here.”
  • Q: What would we get if we threw all the books in the ocean? A title wave!
  • Q: When is a math book sad? When it is full of problems!
  • Q: You go here to find books, where are you going? To the library.
  • Q: What’s the longest word in the dictionary? Smiles. Because there is a mile between each s.
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  • Q: To find this clue you have to look, in the place where you read books? A library.
  • Q: What’s a cat’s favorite book? Cat in a Hat.
  • Q: Why is a physics book always unhappy? Because it always has lots of problems.
  • Q: What do you call a group of cows that judge a book? The Moo York Times!
  • Q: Why is a geometry book always unhappy? Because it always has lots of problems.
  • Q: What type of books do owls like to read? Hooo-dunnits!
  • Q: Why did Frodo read The Lord of the Rings 50 times? Because it was hobbit-forming!
  • Q: What has leaves that never fall? Covered in wood but easily ruined? A book!
  • Q: What kind of book does a rabbit like to read? One with a hoppy ending!
  • Q: What listens, yet tells? Writing a book. A book listens as you write, and tells your story when read.
  • Q: How many books can you put into an empty backpack? One! After that it’s not empty.
  • Q: Why did the book decide to join the law enforcement profession? He wanted to go undercover.
  • Q: Stiff is my spine and my body is pale, but I’m always ready to tell a tale? I’m a book!
  • Q: What book was once owned by only the wealthy, but now everyone can have it? You can’t buy it in a bookstore or take it from the library. A telephone book!
  • Q: What did the bartender say after a book walked into the bar? “Please, no stories!”
  • Q: Where can you always find money?  In the dictionary!
  • Q: Where do books sleep? Between their covers.
  • Q: A girl is sitting in a house at night that has no lights on at all. There is no lamp, no candle, nothing. Yet she is reading. How? The woman is blind and is reading braille.
  • Q: Where do bedtime books sleep? Under their covers.
  • Q: There are a number of books on a shelf. If one book is the 6th from the left and 4th from the right, how many books are on the shelf? There are 9 books on the shelf.
kid reading on white background with green border
  • Q: A man had a book that was worth $40,000. There were only 2 books in existence. He threw it in the furnace, reducing it to a pile of soot. Why did he do this? He destroyed the book because he has two, and by only having one, the value goes up.
  • Q: Although this thing has a spine it doesn’t have a face. Although it is not clothing it gets stored in a case. This is? A book!
  • Q: This thing has a cover but it is not a bed. It has many pages and is something that’s read. This is? A book!
  • Q: A spine, no knees full of stories, You will find these in libraries. What is this? A book!
  • Q: I’m something that’s been written although I am not a song. I can be a short story or a novel that is long. What am I? A book!
  • Q: I come after check guide, match, note and cook. I’m usually read. Which means I’m a _ _ _ _? A book!
  • Q: I have letters and numbers but I’m not a computer keyboard. I’m sometimes stored in a case but I’m not a cellphone. I contain paper but I’m not a ring binder. I have a cover but I’m not a pillow. I have a spine but I don’t have any bones. What am I? A book!
  • Q: I am old but also new I may seem rather strange but all of me is true. I am 66 inside but really only 1. I can be pocket-sized or sometimes weigh a ton! All of me is about a person you really ought to meet. He often signs his name and each story is his treat. I am a world best seller but sadly seldom read perhaps you’ve seen me on a shelf or lying by a bed? What am I? The Bible!
  • Q: People speak through me, yet I do not make a sound. People can sell me, yet I have many clones. I can bring you laughter between breakfast and tea, Yet I can also break your heart easily. I cover the earth like trees of old, Whose leaves can blind and yet enfold. I am? A book!
  • Q: This country gave us Harry Potter and the cuddly Paddington Bear. Consulting detective Sherlock Holmes
  • And Robin Hood who kept things fair. This is? England!
  • Q: Stiff is my spine, Andy body is pale. But I’m always ready to tell a tale. What am I? A book.
  • Q: Look here, I often get paired up with worms. I am a? A book.
  • Q: Inside me the adventurous find quests and treasures of every kind Trolls ,goblins, orcs, and more, await within my closed walls for all those that wish to visit me. Your hands are the key to secrets untold, and your mind will unlock the door. I am a? Book.
  • Q: I have no voice and yet I speak to you, I tell of all things in the world that people do. I have leaves, but I am not a tree, I have pages, but I am not a bride or royalty. I have a spine and hinges, but I am not a man or a door, I have told you all, I cannot tell you more. What am I? A book.

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