Customising the book navigation menu

By default, the navigation menu block for a book appears only on pages that are part of the book hierarchy- that is, the top-level book page (www.example.com/books/book-name) and its child pages (www.example.com/books/book-name/child-page). This is because the code in the block is not an actual menu- it just simulates a menu, and so will never appear on the menu page at ..admin/menu.

This means that you can't make the book navigation block appear permanently on the front page (if you are using the book module to create a static hierarchical structure for example), or in any other place on the site except the book pages.

This seems like a major limitation, but fortunately a snippet is available that will create a book navigation menu that can be placed anywhere on your site and not just when navigating a book.