The Best American Non-Required Reading 2008

Book #5 on my reading list was The Best American Non-Required Reading 2008.

Last year's BANRR was a big hit for me, so I came into this year with pretty high expectations. Unfortunately I didn't find this one nearly as compelling as last year. There are still some winners sprinkled throughout, but the overall quality just isn't what I was hoping for. I guess all those non-required authors had a down year last year. The big winner for me by far was George Saunders' excellent, excellent, excellent "Bill Clinton, Public Citizen". Laura van den Berg's "Where We Must Be" also stood out.

Why I Read This One
I'm a big fan of the series so picking this one up was a no-brainer.

George Saunders interviews Bill Clinton

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007

The first book of my fourth shot at the fifty book challenge was The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 (that's a lotta numbers for one sentance).

I'm not exactly sure what makes the stuff in this book non-required, but I am sure that it's all darned good. There are several pieces well worth reading, but some that particularly stood out to me were Alison Bechdel's comic "A Happy Death", Jennifer Egan's "Selling the General", Kevin A. Gonzalez's "Loteria", Nam Le's "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice" and David J. Morris' "The Big Suck: Notes from the Jarhead Underground". Conan O'Brien's high school commencement speech is also pretty durn funny.

To top it off, courtesy of the 'other notables' index in the back of the book I found out that Padgett Powell published a piece in Subtropics a cool new(ish) literary zine published by my beloved University of Florida. Sweet!

The Best American Comics 2007

Book #43 on my '07 reading list was The Best American Comics 2007.

This is a case where you can actually judge a book by its cover. The Best American Comics 2007 is in fact a collection of some of the best comics published in the last year. Shocking, I know. Some of my favorites from this volume, numero dos in the Best American Comics series, included:

• Art Spiegelman - "Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@#*!"
• Alison Bechdel - "The Canary-Colored Caravan of Death"
• Jeffrey Brown - "These Things, These Things"
• Kevin Huizenga - "Glenn in Bed"
• Adrian Tomine - "Shortcomings"
• Gilbert Hernandez - "Fritz After Dark"
• Charles Burns - Black Hole
• Dan Zettwoch - "Won't Be Licked..."

The Best American Comics

Book #47 of my '06 reading list was The Best American Comics 2006. I picked this one up at a UBookstore reading which I previously blogged about here.

There's a pretty good mix of styles and artists in the book, but some of my favorites were Joe Sacco's superb "Complacency Kills" and comics by Anders Nilsen, Lilli Carre, Justin Hall, Jesse Reklaw and of course Robert Crumb.

Harvey Pekar and Co. @ Bookstore

Tonight we saw Harvey Pekar, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Jesse Reklaw, and David Lasky read at the UBookstore to promote the newest member of the 'The Best American..." series The Best American Comics 2006. The event was well attended drawing a large crowd of comic fans and based on a show of hands a surprising number of local cartoonists.

Moore, who agreed to edit the series despite her intial reaction that it would never sell, began the event by talking about her role in putting the book together. Basically she spent two months reading as many new comics as she could finally settling on about 150 of the best. Pekar then took that list, whittled it down to 30 of his favorites and voila a book was born.

After Moore and Pekar chatted about the concept behind the book, early sales (positive), and the state of the comic industry, local artists Reklaw and Lasky got a chance to speak a bit about their works and their contributions to this year's collection. The longest Q&A in reading history then followed with the panel taking questions for nearly an hour. The highlight of the night was definitely Pekar. His quirky wit and experienced observations were only highlighted by his aloof demeanor.

The Stranger has a bit more about Pekar in their suggestion that you attend the event, while Seattlest suggested avoiding it at all costs due to Moore's (apparently) controversial past. Man do I love a good nerd fight!

BTW, in somewhat relatedish news if you haven't already heard Fantagraphics opened a new store here in Seattle. Sa-weet!

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003

Book #10 on my 2006 reading list was The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003. Now I know you're probably wondering, "Hmm...if this reading was nonrequired in 2003 what does that make it in this the year 2006". Touché. Nonetheless here we are.

My favorite works from the book were Ryan Boudinot's excellent "The Littlest Hitler", Mark Bowden's fascinating "Tales of the Tyrant", Chuck Klosterman's "The Pretenders" (which also appeared in Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs), K. Kvashay Boyle's "Saint Chola", J.T. Leroy's "Stuff", and James Pinkerton's hi-larious "How To Write Suspense".

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005

The 45th book of my 50 book 2005 challenge was The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005, a collection of short stories and essays edited by Dave Eggers.

Even if Eggers' foreward was all your fourteen hard earned dollars got you, you would still be coming out ahead on this deal (and I know you work hard for your money). But oh my friend there is much more here than just tales of Captain Rick's knock-off pirate store. There are also stories of both the fiction and non-fiction variety. There are mail-order brides, heavy metal mercenaries, free burgers for life and Beck. Yes that Beck! There is George Saunders, Stephen Elliott, Ryan Boudinot, Douglas Trevor, Rattawut Lapcharoensap, and others. And by others I mean Al Franken. Yes that Al Franken!

These stories may not be required but they are American and therefore it is your patriotic duty to pick up a copy. What are you a commie or something?