GameCube Anthology

 This is probably the only available book on this strange machine. The book itself presents a bit of conundrum in that it is quite uneven.
On the one hand, and comparing it with the Dreamcast Encyclopedia, it has an extensive coverage (I would go so far as to say it is too extensive, going far beyond what would be necessary or even interesting) on the machine itself: from the design stage, to announcement, bringing to market and discontinuing it, almost quarter to quarter in depth.
There's also an extensive look at the hardware itself, including its various accessories. This section presented, in my opinion the most jaw dropping pages that included photographs of every variation and special edition the console was available in, as well as the whimsical Panasonic Q variation.

On the other hand it suffers from a fatal characteristic that deals a fatal blow as an objective document: it's not impartial, as it's palpably written "in defense" of Nintendo. Even while presenting hard facts on sales the author would have you believe the Nintendo 64 and this one were an incredible success. But in case it wasn't it was the public's fault because Nintendo did everything right. This, as well as some awkwarding phrasing from a sometimes very literal translation from French, makes for some difficult reading.

This is compounded by the "meat" of the book: the full library of games. Here, especially when compared to the Dreamcast Encyclopedia, things become harder to stomach, as it's got loads and loads of poor licensed games. Amusingly the author decided it would be a good idea to rate each and every game from 1 to 5 stars - I can't see the point. Screenshots are usually small and low quality and only the usual suspects get more than a quarter page worth.

As it is, then, it's difficult to recommend wholeheartedly. It is both the best and worst GameCube book available. It's strength is in the incredibly in-depth feature on the machine itself - if you can battle through the Nintendo bias - while the photos of the machine and accessories are great. The section on the games themselves I would put it as a miss. As it is, it's a fans-only affair.