Customers say
Customers find the book fascinating and easy to read, with well-researched content that’s perfect for bathroom reading. The writing style receives mixed reactions, with some finding it easy to read while others find it tedious. Customers appreciate the short, snip-style stories and consider it a great way to start the day. The humor is appreciated, with one customer noting it has the most puns, though opinions about the historical content are mixed.
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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:
National Geographic author Michael Farquhar uncovers an instance of bad luck, epic misfortune, and unadulterated mayhem tied to every day of the year. From Caligula’s blood-soaked end to hotelier Steve Wynn’s unfortunate run-in with a priceless Picasso, these 365 tales of misery include lost fortunes (like the would-be Apple investor who pulled out in 1977 and missed out on a $30 billion-dollar windfall), romance gone wrong (like the 16th-century Shah who experimented with an early form of Viagra with empire-changing results), and truly bizarre moments (like the Great Molasses Flood of 1919).
Think you’re having a bad day? Trust us, it gets worse.
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: Cassandra
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great gift!
Review: I bought this book for my boyfriend who loves history. He is also incredibly dyslexic and does not like to read. This book was perfect, as no entry was more than two pages long. It was really fun to look at all of the special days in our lives and see what horrible things happened LOL!I gave it to him with the context of “whenever you’re having a bad day, you can look in the book and say ‘well at least I’m not that guy!'”It’s worked really wellIt has a good mix of very famous “bad days” and very arbitrary stories that neither of us had heard of! Great gift.
Reviewer: Joy Cagil
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Original and entertaining historical anecdotes, even if dark and disconcerting
Review: I enjoyed reading this book a lot, not because bad things happened to other people but because I didn’t know about 90% of those events, such as poor Harry Truman’s mother-in-law who hated him moving in with him and her daughter into the White House. A good example to what the author puts it in the introduction as, “No matter how lousy your day has been, somewhere in time, someone else’s was so much worse.”It is true that, in general, I find trivia entertaining, and since I like history, this book made my day stretching into a few days while I read it. I may even read it again, and I never read a book twice.The stories that stand out for me are quite a few, such as what happened to astronomer Tycho Brahe, The Great Emu War, when the sperm whale exploded in Oregon, Tom Shales going after Kathie Lee, Gifford, what the hotel-owner Steve Winn did to a priceless Picasso, the misprint in a 1632 Bible that says, “thou shalt commit adultery, The Birth of a Nation, D. W. Griffith’s 1915 film celebrating KKK, Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima’s ritual suicide going bad, what happened to Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée, Clara Harris who were with Lincoln in the presidential box when he was assassinated many years after, and many other anecdotes all told with a clear, impartial language.The anecdotes in the book are in a specific order, from January to the end of December, however with no chronology as to the year but to the day; for example, what happened in the twentieth century followed by another event in the sixteenth century and vice versa if they were in two same or consecutive days of a certain month. This alone makes the pacing interesting and keeps the reader paying attention. The lesson gathered from all this is that bad luck, mayhem, and misfortune can happen any day and any time of any month, regardless of the year or century.Then, it is true that a good part of the book is somewhat dark and even graphic, but it is because the contents agree with the title, and no reader can fault that arrangement.
Reviewer: Alan Beggerow
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book
Review: I’ve read some of the author’s previous books such as Royal Scandals and Great American Scandals, both of which I enjoyed very much. So I read Bad Days In History with some expectations. I’d put Bad Days in History in the same category as his other books. Interesting, well-researched, and written in a very readable and entertaining style.This book takes every day of the year and offers up mistakes, disasters, bad decisions, or otherwise bad things that happened on that day in history. The premise is interesting, and some of the days have more than one entry. From ancient history to more current, the entries cover a huge span of historical time, and as such are but thumbnail sketches. But that’s one reason that makes this such a good book. Some of the entries have tweaked my curiosity enough to read further on the subject.Highly recommended for history lovers as well as the general non-fiction reader.
Reviewer: jmk
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book – a lot of fun
Review: This is an interesting read – I bought it as a present and the recipient LOVED it! Fun and interesting info; makes great conversation in a crowd.
Reviewer: JD Torres
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Short and to the point history tid bites
Review: Didn’t know I had expectations for this book until I had it. The author does an all right job highlighting misfortunes of people or places during different parts of history for each day in the year, but the stories are pretty short.It’s still a good read for quick book reading trips, but don’t expect anything that’s going to give you in-depth accounts of history.
Reviewer: X
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: BOOK
Review: Met all expectations.
Reviewer: john t. barron
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: book
Review: ok
Reviewer: Sharon Prentice, MFA
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fascinating Reading
Review: I really enjoyed reading about all the different disasters. Some people might find all the bad things depressing.
Reviewer: Conrad
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Eher ein schlicht gehaltenes Buch. Der Autor ist laut Selbstbeschreibung in einer namhaften Zeitung als naiv bezeichnet worden. Das trifft es recht gut.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I do like it and plan to buy the second one.
Reviewer: Sergio Jara Rullan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Buena compra
Reviewer: Oana
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Premetto che è stato un regalo per una persona che sa apprezzare l’ironia ed è amante della storia.Testi molto simpatici, non sempre l’inglese è uno semplice, quindi non lo consiglio a chi non è almeno livello B2.Copertina morbida, senza protezioni, carta non esattamente pregiata (leggermente grigia).
Reviewer: blizotte
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Funny and interesting book. Used as a conversation starter at dinner parties.
Price effective as of Apr 20, 2025 09:59:25 UTC
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