The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 Edited by Dave Eggers
This was probably the best of the series thus far.
It included the “best American first sentences of novels in 2005”, excerpts from that Chuck Norris website, a very funny piece from Kurt Vonnegut on writing, Julia Sweeney’s “Letting Go of God” piece, comics and many other funny and poignant bits from everywhere.
I don’t have it with me, lest I’d make more notes, but… if you’re ever going to read anything from this series, make this one the first.
Nonrequired
That sounds a zillion times better than the earlier volume I got from the library about a month ago, which was 2005 (maybe sooner). I read almost none of it because the articles seemed long and stupefying, although there was a nice comic book story and a funny David Sedaris memory piece about a teen slumber party (which featured an all-male strip poker game that I strongly suspect was a figment of his imagination).
Re: Nonrequired
I think that’s 2004, as it was the last one I read and I remember the David Sedaris essay being in there… I started it and realized I’d already read it in, I believe, Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim, his latest book.
2004 was not the best of the series, to be sure. I skipped a lot of the essays. The Amazon reviews are not favorable, either.
2006 is a lot better.
I’m excited because they added a Best American Comics to the series in 2006.