Compiling nonfiction, fiction, journalism and comics of 2003, “The Best American Nonrequired Reading” picked the “least-expected” writing from a wide array of publications, both in print and online.

Selected by a team of high school students from the San Francisco Bay Area and overseen by Dave Eggers (who is also the book’s editor), the pieces contained within the book represent the best writing of 2003 that hasn’t appeared in purview of mainstream media.

“Nonrequired Reading” mixes the works of well-established writers, such as Sherman Alexie and David Sedaris, with those of debut authors like Michael Buckley and K. Kvashay-Boyle.

In the same way, the book is well-balanced with fiction, journalism, nonfiction, satire and even a comic from Lynda Barry.

“Tales of the Tyrant,” by Mark Bowden, is an intriguing piece that details the life of Saddam Hussein before his fall, piecing together interviews with people under his rule to illustrate his motivations and heritage, and the isolated dream world he created for himself.

In “Visiting Hours,” by Judy Budnitz, a teenage girl visits her brother, who is hospitalized due to an injury of unclear origin, and tells him fantastic tales. Throughout the course of the story, we learn the seemingly perfect suburban family they are part of is not all it appears to be.

It is wonderful to see the serious muckraking journalism of Jason Stella in “Astro Turf,” an article about how large companies manufacture seemingly “grassroots” movements to further their agendas, placed in the same book as “I’ll Try Anything With a Detached Air of Superiority,” a hilarious selection from The Onion satirizing the upper crust of society.

Chuck Klosterman follows a Guns N’ Roses tribute band, called Paradise City, to a show in Omaha, Neb., in “The Pretenders.” The band looks and acts like Guns N’ Roses, sings their songs and ultimately lives the rock ‘n’ roll life, full of drugs and sex, because of their obsession.

Being the best nonrequired reading may be what makes these pieces so interesting. Rather than being chosen because they are short stories or articles, or are in a large-circulation magazine, the pieces in “The Best American Nonrequired Reading” represent the most intriguing and well-crafted writing of 2003, regardless of form or fame.

I was not sitting on the edge of my seat through every single work, and found myself less-than-enthused at Jonathan Safran Foer’s “A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease,” a piece that illustrates how different families use different gestures and phrases implicitly to talk to each other. Though thematically rich and somewhat novel, it left much to be desired in the way of writing — the criteria, it would seem, for the collection.

On the whole, though, “The Best American Nonrequired Reading” introduces a host of talented writers the interested reader might want to check out further.

Eggers and his crack team of high school students have culled the best of the nonrequired, and illustrated that talent can be found in that which is not the most popular or well-known.