Badass: A Relentless Onslaught of the Toughest Warlords, Vikings, Samurai, Pirates, Gunfighters and Military Commanders to Ever Live (2009)

Author: Ben Thompson | Page Count: 337

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.

Badass is a book written by Ben Thompson as an extension of his website chronicling historical figures who excelled at what they do whether it be combat, science, espionage or just generally being awesome. The book contains 40 chapters each telling the story of one historical figure with articles arranged by time period from antiquity to the modern age.

Rather than a boring history lesson though, Thompson gives these awesome stories the interesting enthusiasm they deserve by punching up the stories with his laid-back writing style filled with hyperbolic analogies and profanity-laced pop culture similes making history somewhat less stodgy. The text is never boring or overwhelming like staring into a textbook in class and is easily digestible with short, to-the-point chapters (unlike the mouthful of a title) and various extras like fun facts, various illustrations and some personal commentary. If history is your thing, then you'll probably enjoy this and if it's not your thing then you still might appreciate the stories in this much more entertaining format.

3½ Spinal cords ripped out through the urethra out of 5