This book by Adam Victor, best known for his similar encyclopedia on Marilyn Monroe hit our doorstep recently. Does it live up to the hype?

In my opinion, yes!

We first take a look at the design and layout. The first thing you notice is the excellent "simple" design of the front cover. Nothing will catch an Elvis fans' eye faster than a giant (did we mention the book is 12x9" in size?) shot of Elvis. And, a great one at that. This iconic shot has shown up on a lot of products in the last few years, but it works very effectively here as the cover shot.

The book is printed on fairly heavyweight paper, and contains 210 color, and 210 black/white shots in good quality.

The information on most pages is presented in a 3-column layout, with most pages illustrated with above mentioned photos, as well as memorabilia.

If you are expecting a biography, this book isn't for you. It is laid out as the title implies, as an encyclopedia. And with roughly 600 pages of information you will probably be finding something new inside every time you pick it up (and don't plan on taking it along on a train/plane voyage as it IS a very heavy book).

The book covers every detail of Elvis' life, from his music, his movies, and everyone imaginable whom was associated with him. The book even includes such topics such as "Shopping", "internet", favorite restaurants, and a very interesting summary of the RCA company. The information is vast.

What separates Mr. Victor's work from such books as "Elvis A-Z" (Worth and Tamerius,1988) is the addition of information on FTD cd's and bootlegs, which to me is a very welcome sight.

There are though, numerous factual and typographical errors in the book, along with quite a few mis-captioned photographs.

Maybe though, I am being too picky? I most likely am, because we have to keep in mind that with a book of this immense size and with such vast information - errors are bound to happen.

Even with the above mentioned errors, this book along with Ernst Jorgenson's "A life in music" are essential to any Elvis fans' collection, as well as in the library of any casual music lover who would like to better understand Elvis' impact on the world of entertainment and popular culture.

Bottom line: