I’m want to purchase a worthwhile elvis book for a friends birthday - he is an avid reader, and big into the king.
I saw a duo of books - ‘Careless Love the Unmaking of Elvis Presley’ and Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralnick, and was wondering if any of you Elvis fans out there have read this and if so, what you thought of it… If you think there is another choice either, I would love to know
thanks in advance:)
I haven’t read those, but I’ve read some of Guarlnick’s other books (Lost Highway and Sweet Soul Music) and he’s a fine writer.
Your only risk may be that your friend may have already read the Elvis bio.
More Elvis books listed here:
You can’t go wrong with Guarlnick’s books, unless your friend already owns them.
The recent biography of Col. Tom Parker’s gotten some very good reviews, and manages to add to the Elvis story with more information about Parker’s life.
Now, if you wanted your friend to never speak to you again, I’d recommend Albert Goldman’s biography, which should be subtitled “I Spit On Your Grave.” The most vicious biography I’ve ever read.
For the maximum Stephen King-style gross-out effect, get “The Death of Elvis Presley: What Really Happened,” which contains this description of his autopsy, including this about his colon:
The colon is approximately five to seven feet in length in a person Elvis’s size and should have been about two inches in diameter . . . however, Elvis’s colon was at least three and a half inches in diameter in some places and as large as four and half to five inches in diameter in others . . . [T]he megacolon was jam-packed from the base of the descending colon all the way up and halfway across the transverse colon. It was filled with white, chalklike fecal material.
Aren’t you glad you asked? 
pesch is spot on about Guarlink’s books. You might also want to look into Elvis Presley: A Life In Music: The Complete Recording Sessions .
As far as Albert Goldman’s book goes, his trashing by Rolling Stone is a bit unwarrented. Much of what he says about Elvis’s last years while perhaps painful to read is quite accurate.
Guralnick’s two Elvis books are the definitive bios. I really enjoyed the aforementioned Ernst Jorgensen book Elvis Presley: A Life in Music, which details all of Elvis’ recording sessions. A recent book, Elvis for Everyone: The Essential Guide to the Recorded Music of Elvis Presley by David Parker, is a good book for the Elvis fan who has everything. It is a pictorial discography of international Elvis CD releases, including many, many bootlegs.
Cheers folks - off to buy the Guralnick set at lunchtime…