2019
Weight: 7.8 oz
Method of Disposal: Sending Away
At some point in each year, I will find myself in a bookstore narrowing down what I should buy or looking for something new to read and there, magically on the anthology shelf, will be The Best American Nonrequired Reading. I love reading it and purchase it every time. It was originally my college Creative Writing professor (whom I adored) that introduced me to it, and I have enjoyed it ever since. I never think to buy it until I am in a store for some other reason but, ultimately, the realization that it exists once again will hit me.
It is usually a fun combination of short fiction, short non-fiction, poetry, and comics. It sometimes will also include other fun, off-the wall content, like Chuck Norris jokes. It is just enjoyable to read, and it exposes you to authors that you maybe do not know about. The selections are made once a year by high school students in California and in Michigan. I like that for a lot of reasons. 1. I am fairly certain my brain is so different than it was in high school by now that I could not even dream of knowing what a high schooler might like. Therefore, I am reading a selection from someone not in the same space as myself and that is insightful. 2. It gives me hope to see what the high schoolers choose for us to read. For example, 2019 had an incredibly diverse sample, and it was delightful. Could the youth really save us? I am not someone who thinks that. I am not someone who expects that. But, could they? 3. I, generally, feel like I do not like teenagers. I hated myself when I was a teenager. This makes me remember that all teenagers are not the same and that in fact they are at a very exciting, challenging, passionate, wild time of their lives and that there is a lot of value in that for them but also for all of us. Never stereotype a group of people! When you do you will always end up proven wrong.
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