Scratch

The mystery of the Inaccessible Book in SMS has been solved! It turns out, it was only obtainable in the Japanese version.

The Noki Elder sends you to retrieve the book for whatever reason, and Mario goes into the bottle. It's fairly easy, because all you have to do is float to the bottom, open the door, and grab the book. You will return to the Noki Elder, and he will give you the Shine Sprite you deserved.

This was possibly changed in the English version because it was far to simple, so it was made into a Red Coin mission. However, Nintendo of America didn't want to have to rework the entire level just to remove the book and door, so they just split a wall through them. The book actually says something, which I barely translated to "You have no life. Shigeru Miyamoto."

This has been jakeemma on Odd Easter Eggs!