The Beatles Anthology: (Beatles Gifts, The Beatles Merchandise, Beatles Memorabilia)

The Beatles Anthology is a once-in-a-lifetime collection of The Beatles' own memories, providing a wealth of previously unpublished material in both word and image.

This extraordinary project has been made possible because Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr have agreed to tell their combined story especially for this book, along with Yoko Ono Lennon, who has also made available the full transcripts (including all outtakes) of the television and video series The Beatles Anthology.

With massive publicity, innumerable tie-ins, and enduring, worldwide passion for the music, this is poised to be one of the biggest nonfiction books of the year.

The book opens with the band members' separate accounts of their childhoods, then moves into a year-by-year organization that allows for great detail and many digressions.

It takes the form of a massive oral-history tome, its contents derived mostly from recorded conversations with Paul, George, and Ringo for the recent TV documentary The Beatles Anthology.

Those are augmented by excerpts from interviews with John that are integrated effectively and almost seamlessly with the new material, and by occasional comments from the group's closest associates, such as recording producer George Martin.

Big as it is, the volume virtually overflows with fascinating tidbits about growing up in Liverpool, early gigs, the rise to unprecedented fame and acclaim, and the Beatles' pervasive social influence.

It seems crammed much in the way that the Beatles crammed several lifetimes' worth of music and living into the decade of the group's existence.

The text is accompanied by more than 1,300 photos, many letters, and other memorabilia.

Even familiar bits of Beatle lore seem fresh when told in the band's own words.

Expect heavy dem