I know, writing about music is like dancing about art -- or however that great quote by Elvis Costello went. But there have always been great books about music and three recent ones make great gifts this holiday season.

You won't have much luck stuffing Carlo Verri's "Jazz from A to Z" (Mediane hardcover, $24.95) into a stocking, but it's square, so it's pretty easy to wrap. And when the jazz fan on your list cracks open this compendium of photographs by photographer Verri, their eyes will light up.

Arranged, unsurprisingly, alphabetically, these photos are a who's who of jazz, from guitarist John Abercrombie to Joe Zawinul. In between you'll find Cecil Taylor hard at work at the piano, Nina Simone deep in song, Pharoah Sanders blowing and Elvin Jones rocking.

Because Verri is Italian, don't be surprised to see some photographs of musicians from that country's always simmering jazz scene -- like Sante Palumbo, Nunzio Rotondo, Gianni Cazzola and Lino Liguori -- alongside Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Milt Hinton and Billy Higgins.

Verri's photographs -- all in black and white -- catch the musicians in song, but also deep in thought and behind the scenes.

"Coltrane: The Story of a Sound" by New York Times critic Ben Ratliff was published in hardcover last year and now arrives in paperback from Picador USA ($16).

Ratliff's is just one of a number of books written about the incomparable John Coltrane and so the author was wise to eschew straight up biography and analysis, opting instead to try and work out what made Coltrane so influential and why he is still such a powerful force in jazz more than 40 years after his death.

John Lydon's "Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs" was published in 1994 and Picador has reissued it in paperback, reminding us of just what a compelling storyteller Lydon is. Don't let him fool you, behind the filth and the fury, Lydon is a canny geezer.

So, we get his memories of growing up and of the Sex Pistols, but Lydon also interviewed others who were there, so we hear from lensman Bob Gruen, from Chrissie Hynde, from fellow Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook, filmmaker Don Letts, and others.

The result is a fast and furious read and a great look into the punk explosion from someone who was not only involved, but was at the center of it all.

Last but not least, Juliana Hatfield's memoir "When I Grow Up" (Wiley hardcover, $24.95) is out and offers a no holds barred look into the life of someone who has spent her entire adult life as an alternative rock hero, first with Blake Babies and then as a solo performer and band leader.

Parallel to her story as a rock star, Hatfield recounts her private life in which she has battled depression, anxiety and anorexia.