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Product Description
From Dave Eggers: For this year's edition of The Best American Nonrequired Reading, we wanted to expand the scope of the book to include shorter pieces, and fragments of stories, and transcripts, screenplays, television scripts -- lots of things that we hadn't included before. Our publisher readily agreed, and so you'll see that this year's edition is far more eclectic in form than previous editions. Along the way to making the book, we also came across a variety of things that didn't fit neatly anywhere, but which we felt should be included, so we conceived the front section, which is a loose Best American roundup of notable words and sentences from 2005. It is, like this book in general, obviously and completely incomplete, but might be interesting nevertheless.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Good Collection, 2008-11-25
A good collection of quick, often hilarious short pieces from some well-known (and some less-well-known) authors. It is of undeniably Eggers-ian dimensions, and worth the price of admissions for DFW's "Kenyon Commencement Speech" alone.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Can't Really Complain, 2008-11-22
This is the first edition of Nonrequired Reading that I've read, but it won't be the last. I really enjoyed it. The only problem is the reading is so varied. There were a couple stories I skimmed over because the topic didn't really interest me, but the really good stories made up for it. There were two graphic short stories, which I really enjoyed. I teach middle school and flirted with the idea of sharing them with my students, but in the end felt the subject matter was too mature for them. Most of the reading would be more appropriate for college-level reading. There was one article in which scientists wrote about what that thought was real, but could not prove. That had to be my favorite because it really blew my mind. Also, a great article on Dubai, a place I'll probably never get to visit, but wish I could.
Great reading. Since I own it, I can see myself picking it up again in a few years and rereading. One of the reviewers said this was their least favorite edition. If that is true, I can't wait to read the others because, to me, this edition was pretty solid.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Find new and interesting authors - expand your horizons, 2007-09-14
This is a great book for those who wish to be exposed to new contemporary authors. I especially enjoyed the story on Dubai by George Saunders, "The New Mecca". If you've never read about Dubai (or even if you have), it's a real treat to hear more about the Fantasyland of the Middle East...
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Different brand of humor, but its the kind I like!, 2007-09-04
I first became a Dave Eggers fan after getting into McSweeney's thanks to an NPR review. I'm actually not retirement age, listening to NPR, but a 20 year old college student. This book is great because I can read it in short spurts, like before class starts, and not really lose the focus of an intense novel. Also, the stories in this edition are truly riveting- the tale of a "freedom fighter", a future "Body Works" corpse- and yet some just make your face light up- the best fake headlines, courtesy of The Onion, random first lines of books. Overall, this is random, but a great cross section of pop culture. Weird? yes. Nonrequired? It's so good, it should be required.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 worst edition yet, 2007-08-24
I've been reading the Nonrequired Reading since its first volume, and it is usually one of my favorites of the series, but, much like this year's essay collection, this is the worst I've seen yet. I love Matt Groening, but his introduction just seemed pointless. Eggers has a new format, with his best new words, band names, fake headlines, etc. basically section one is a waste of trees. In fact, most in this volume is a waste of time and energy and ink. The only things worth reading are the Onion headlines, the excerpt from the military blog, Downey's Rolling Stone piece, "The Insurgent's Tale," which helps to humanize and somewhat better understand jihadist, Michael Lewis's "Wading Toward Home" a piece about New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, Murakami's short story, Jeff Parker's short story, Rakoff's story of becoming a citizen, Joe Sacco's comic, Saunders fluff piece on Dubai, Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go of God, and finally, the masterful Kurt Vonnegut. But over half the book isn't worth reading. I hope next year's edition is back up to the standard Eggers set early in the series.
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