As we slide into the final days of the countdown to 2000, the prophets of doom are predicting Y2Kaos and/or the end of the world, the millennium purists are insisting that the real party is still another year away -- and we here at the SF Site are gearing up for yet another round of Best Read of the Year awards!

In addition to our 3rd annual Best Read of the Year, as chosen by the SF Site staff of contributors and editors, the early part of the year 2000 will also be heralding our 2nd annual Readers' Choice: Best Read of 1999 list. This is where you get to let the world know what you thought were the best books you read all year.

Unlike most of the genre awards out there, we're not limiting our picks to so narrow a category as the best new Fantasy, the best SF, the best new author, the best alternate history, the best new novel, or anything of the sort. Those are already covered by one award or another. Instead, the SF Site Readers' Choice: Best Read of 1999 choices will list the 10 most popular books that you have read this year and as voted by you, our readers. We figure, if you thought the best book you read all year was the Avon EOS new edition of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, first published in Russian in 1920-something, why shouldn't that be acknowledged? Heck, if it's that good a book, shouldn't we let the rest of the world know?

The only stipulations for eligibility are that:

1. the book must be genre-related (i.e., somehow associated with SF or Fantasy); and
2. the book must have been released somewhere in the world, in English, in 1999.

Readers' Choice: Best Read of 1998 Best Read of the Year: 1998
Best Read of the Year: 1997

Voting
We are encouraging each and every one of our readers to vote for the best books you read this past year. Voting is easy. Send an e-mail to editor@sfsite.com with the subject line "Vote" and list your top 10 picks of the year, in order, with your first choice in the number one slot.

Be sure to list the title and author for each of your 10 choices.

Since you get 10 choices, we're only allowing you to vote once per person -- NO BALLOT STUFFING, PLEASE! Last year was the first time we did a Readers' Choice list, and we only had a small number of people who tried to cheat. Please don't. It's just tedious. We will catch it, and we will disqualify all your votes.

There's no list of nominations to pick from, although we'll give you a starting point by listing all the books that passed through the SF Site offices in the past year. But if you know of a book that's not mentioned by us and you want to give it a vote, go right ahead.

Deadline
All votes must be received by 15 January 2000. Nothing received after that date will be counted.

Now, before you vote, you may want to peruse through our list of books to see if there are any titles you may have forgotten about. Those books noted with a blue flag have been reviewed on the SF Site, and if you need a quick reminder of a particular title you can drop by our review list (be careful, it's big) -- or the SF Site Books Section, where every single title we receive is scanned and given a 100-150 word blurb.

On to the books...