The "Book of the People" was the most sacred text of the people of Yonada. According to their leader, Natira, it was "to be opened and read" when they arrived at their "new world of the promise." Before then, it was housed in a monolith in the chamber of Oracle of the People.
To open the monolith and behold the contents of the Book was considered sacrilege and warranted death. When one became a member of the people of Yonada, as Leonard McCoy did in 2268, he would be shown the Book, as well as submit to the insertion of the instrument of obedience.
Natira also told Doctor McCoy that it was given by the Creators. It was subsequently learned that the "Creators" were the ancient Fabrini and that the Book was merely a technical manual and guidebook. Yonada was, in fact, a multi-generational colony ship and the "Oracle" its computer. By consulting the Book of the People, Captain James Kirk and Commander Spock were able to gain access to the computer and correct the flaw in its propulsion system, thus averting a collision with Daran V. (TOS: "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky")
- The Book of the People-prop was first seen as "Chicago Mobs of the Twenties" in TOS: "A Piece of the Action."