The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002, edited by Dave Eggers is very similar to The Best American Essays series, but drawing articles from more non-traditional sources, such as The Onion (www.theonion.com) and smaller alternative presses, such as To-Do List magazine, Salon.com, and, McSweeney's. This installment--the first--features articles by well-known and lesser-known writers, including Dave Eggers, David Sedaris, and Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation).

One of my favorite pieces in the book is Randy Rothman's narrative entitled "My Fake Job" about the two weeks he spent as an "employee" of a dot-com firm--he showed up for work without ever having been hired. Sara Corbett's essay, "The Lost Boys" is a moving account of three orphaned brothers from the Sudan who come to America for refuge and find themselves living in Fargo, North Dakota, and "Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-to-Door Trying to Shock People" from The Onion is a great newspaper spoof.