I use a book and quill frequently in my survival games to keep track of things in-game as well as journal. 

     With that said I discovered a bug. When you finish writing in a few pages and leave the book either in a chest or in my case an item frame and take it out, the first page will sometimes be blank. Or at other times, the book will just be in my hand, and after editing and closing the book a page will be blank. 

     I haven't found a good cause for it, my guess is it might be a timed thing? with the speed at which the realm saves information about the world?

And I've seen that it doesn't require a certain amount of text or a certain kind of character.