Deranged Archaeologist

A strategy to avoid all damage from the special attack is to run on a straight line out of the 9x9 area centred around your initial position as soon as the text appears over the archaeologist's head.

If the player begins moving on the first tick after the text appears, running in a straight line will take the player 8 tiles away from the centre book's target by the time the books detonate, which avoids all damage. If movement begins one tick later, the player can still take damage, since they will be on the edge of the 9x9 area when the books detonate. In this case it is technically possible to take up to 74 damage (by receiving one direct and one indirect hit), but the odds of this happening are extremely small.