Rating: 
Summary: A Lennon fan's portable musuem!
Review: An incredible work of publishing art! Nearly every page offers an "as close to the original as possible" reproduction of an artifact that traces the life of John Lennon, as not just a Beatle, but as a musician, author, artist, husband, father, and the many other facets of his too-short life and imagination. In addition, the informative and well-written text and accompanying bonus CD makes this truly a multi-media experience. The attention to detail in a book with such a large target audience is nothing less than amazing, especially considering the more than reasonable price, making this beautiful book available to anyone who would like it (and you will!). Even casual fans will find this book entertaining and informative.
Rating:
Summary: A Lennon fan's portable musuem!
Review: An incredible work of publishing art! Nearly every page offers an "as close to the original as possible" reproduction of an artifact that traces the life of John Lennon, as not just a Beatle, but as a musician, author, artist, husband, father, and the many other facets of his too-short life and imagination. In addition, the informative and well-written text and accompanying bonus CD makes this truly a multi-media experience. The attention to detail in a book with such a large target audience is nothing less than amazing, especially considering the more than reasonable price, making this beautiful book available to anyone who would like it (and you will!). Even casual fans will find this book entertaining and informative.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Buy...
Review: Every once in awhile, a book comes along with such a refreshing idea I'm taken aback. The main features of this inspired book are exact reproductions of John Lennon artifacts, including handwritten lyrics and drawings. As a John Lennon fan, I'm ecstatic over this release. Seeing a reproduction of the lyric sheet for "Watching the Wheels", for example, with John's alterations and chords written over the words is a rare treat. Other highlights are a copy of The Daily Howl, and one of Lennon's report cards. The actual text will be old news to a Lennon fan, but for someone just gaining interest, it's a nice overview. The book also comes in a nice slipcase and is well designed with unfamiliar photos. Chronicle Books is one of the most innovative publishers out there, and this book is one you'll want to add to your collection regardless of the level of your interest in John Lennon.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fab!
Review: Everything Henke publishes is always a high quality, well-researched effort and this is no exception. It's not hyperbole to say that this book contains virtually everything you ever wanted to know about Lennon memorabilia; the details are prodigious. It's an almost encyclopedic chronicle of Lennon's life from 1940 until his tragic death in 1980. Casual fans might suffocate under the weight of all this info, but for Lennon fanatics, like me, this is nirvana.The book is divided between personal material about John, his relationships, marriages, divorce, and two sons, and his professional career. His partnership with Paul is explored in fascinating detail and no discernible bias can be seen. The index is easy to follow and cross-referenced so you can easily find what you're looking for. The highlights are the color photos of John memorabilia: report cards, Quarrymen stuff, lyric sheets... it'll blow your mind. If you are a serious fan of John Lennon, this is an indispensible guide to his songwriting, personality and his life. If only he had been allowed more than 40 years on earth, how many more classic songs would he have written? Sadly, we will never know, but this celebration of his life is as good as it gets.
Rating:
Summary: A must have for any Beatles/John Lennon fan
Review: How could anybody give this lower than 5 stars?!? It deserves all 5! All of the interactive material was very interesting. My personal favorite was the lyrics. This was a very interesting book and a must have for any Beatles/John Lennon fan!
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: If you love John Lennon then you will love this book. I don't own it, but i saw it in a book store and sat on the floor for about 20 minutes just going through all the little pull-outs it has. Great book to have...i highly recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: "Breathe" - Experience John Lennon
Review: Imagine - you are visiting an exhibition about an important artist. An exhibition guide is describing anecdote-rich in short chapters all creative periods of this artist. Imagine - you are buying the catalog, covering all the things you saw and heard before. Again ... Imagine - you are taking with you some of the so admired exhibits (ok, only as reproductions, but ... anyway). James Henke let with his book "Lennon Legend: An illustrated Life of John Lennon" this dream become true. Because provided with large expenditure, a worthy book is published, which resembles rather a fan collection in form of a photo album as a classical biography. The "Clou" - the book contains high-quality reproductions: handwritten letters and Songtexte, historical documents and further 40 removable memorabilia as well as an interview CD, on which also a rare live recording of "Imagine" is to be heard from the year 1972. Henke avoides dry academical essay and "letter deserts" to the reader. As a curator he knows obviously, how history can be lastingly and affectionately address. Facts become literally "illustrative" and "handable". Therefore you should pull the art cart with Yokos handwritten request "breathe" from page 26 and in thoughts experience , how it could have been, when John met for the first time Yoko. The author succeeds with this approach to show, almost the entire work of Lennon as a musician, author, painter, performance artist and as an actor. But the book is not a detailed exposition with the John's contradictions. Rather Henke concentrates to point the view of the reader of the strengths and talents of this outstanding artist. Nevertheless in my opinion this book let the answer to question open, which let John Lennon become a legend. This to mediate clearly, succeeds only in few places in this book: "in somewhat more than three years... they (the Beatles) had revolutionized the music and the fashion, and at the cultural and social changes... they were considerably involved." Also John never understood itself as legend. In its last interview (contained in cutouts also on that CD) he says: "my role in society is trying to express, what we all feel and not to tell the people how to feel - not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all, and it's like that the job of the artists in society." All in all, this book is remarkable, than many biographies about John Lennon before - Henke lets the "legend become touchable": Imagine - you are opening the book and the Lennon exhibition come to you home. Already because of this conception that book earned at least four of five stars.
Rating:
Summary: All I'm Saying is give this book a chance
Review: John - my second favorite Beatle, and my favorite solo ex-Beatle (come on, is there really any competition between 'Imagine' and 'Silly Love Songs'?) So you can IMAGINE my giddy excitement when I saw this one on the shelves. A must read. I loved it. For any obsessive Beatle fan (like me) or anyone just looking for a way to pass the days away. "If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."
John Lennon If everyone read this book, there'd be peace. Or at least a very satisfied reader.
Rating:
Summary: A Must for any Lennon fan
Review: Lennon Legend by James Henke is a must for any fan of John Lennon and the Beatles. So much that has been written about Lennon since his tragic death has been sad and rather downbeat. You won't find that here.Created with the cooperation of Yoko Ono, this is a jotous celebration of Lennon's life in his own words and in pictures, many of which have not been seen before. This is like a stroll though a Lennon musueum, with handwritten song lyrics, notes from his wife and family photos. The audio CD is fascinating, with Lennon reminiscing about his life from his school days to the breakup of the Beatles. This is all great fun and a fantastic, worthy addition to all fan's collection. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Moving Experience
Review: LENNON LEGEND is a remarkable book featuring many removable reproductions of Lennon's handwritten song lyrics and other memorabilia. The experience of holding these song lyrics in your hands is powerful - you feel and strong and direct connection to John and his work. If you are a Lennon fan, this book is a must!
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