Not Many People Know That!: Michael Caine's Almanac of Amazing Information

by Michael Caine

Book Overview

Not Many People Know That: Michael Caine's Almanac of Amazing Information (Coronet Books) This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0340379057
• ISBN13: 9780340379059
• Release Date: October 1986
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton General Division
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

best book ever written.

this is without a doubt the finest book ever written. it's packed with worthless trivia and obscure facts that you will never use and will fill up parts of your brain that should be used for something else. feel the power of this great book.

A Very Special Book Review

Not many people know that Michael Caine was born in 1933, the son of a Billingsgate fish porter. Then again, not many people would care either, so it is hard to see how this book became the "number one bestseller" that its cover claims it to be. The introduction of this book gives you something of an insight into Michael Caine, the man. Who was he? What moved him? Why did he become whatever it was that he became? It seems that as a young child, li'l Mikey became aware of the power of a well timed fact. Apparently, they make you feel better for not having received a proper education. They are also useful for a bit of one upmanship when you come up against a "know-all". Unfortunately, and it really does pain me to have to point this out to a man of Michael's obvious calibre, it seems that Michael is the know-all. After all, this book is a collection of facts that Michael Caine has put together because he knows them, but not many other people know them. It also seems that, along with his knack for absorbing useless and highly dubious bits of information, Sir Michael Caine has a rare talent for self promotion. Another extremely unfortunate point that has to be made is that many of Caine's `facts' are, even to the layman, clearly spurious. Incorrect, that is, or if not incorrect certainly insanely difficult to verify. Like the fact that `Some soft drinks are made sweeter by adding coal'. Or that `An American aircraft in Vietnam shot itself down with one of it's own missiles'. Not many people know that. That's because it is NOT TRUE. Or IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE. Michael's only valid point, and I think this is the point on which the success of the book hinges, is that facts, especially highly irrelevant and inexplicably timed facts, can be very funny. They can be even funnier if read aloud in a pseudo-Cockney accent. Believe me, I've tried it. If you want to give it a go, simply peruse the pages of this book and read each useless fact aloud. Pretty funny, huh? And believe me, it gets funnier and funnier the more you do it. Actually, despite its faults, and largely because of them, this book rates pretty highly on my list of things to do in a social setting. And you really can't discount the fact that there is a huge picture of Michael Caine on the front. Now that's a selling point.