The Book of the Book

*The Book of the Book*
	First edition
Author	Idries Shah
Language	English
Subject	Sufism
Published	1969
Publisher	Octagon Press
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Paperback & eBook).
Pages	278
ISBN	9781784790783
OCLC	16228770
Preceded by	The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin
Followed by	Wisdom of the Idiots

The Book of the Book is a book by Idries Shah. The majority of the book's 200 pages are blank, with the remaining nine pages telling the story of a book left by a wise man consisting of one sentence and attempts over hundreds of years to discern the intended meaning.

Critical reception

Lawrence Paul Elwell-Sutton writing for The New York Review of Books said, "I suppose his admirers among the Hampstead intelligentsia will have swallowed this buffoonery with the same enthusiasm with which they have gulped down the rest."^[1]

Doris Lessing responded to Elwell-Sutton's remarks, in the New York Review of Books, stating "Ignorance, I will admit, is no crime, and I am sure that Dr. Elwell-Sutton does not claim to be a literary man. But motivation has its mysteries."

A review in Studies in Comparative Religion stated "The Book of the Book, which purports to be an object lesson in the problem of the container and the content, consists of some fifteen pages of print bound together with over 250 blank pages".^[2]

References

^ Elwell-Sutton, L. P.; Lessing, Doris (July 2, 1970). "The Mysterious East". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
^ R.N.J.A. (Summer 1970). "The Book of the Book by Idries Shah" (PDF). Studies in Comparative Religion. 4 (3). World Wisdom, Inc. Retrieved 2017-01-22.

External links

[1] Elwell-Sutton, L. P.; Lessing, Doris (July 2, 1970). "The Mysterious East". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2017-01-21.

[2] R.N.J.A. (Summer 1970). "The Book of the Book by Idries Shah" (PDF). Studies in Comparative Religion. 4 (3). World Wisdom, Inc. Retrieved 2017-01-22.

[1]

[2]