Choose the Year Booktag: 1999

Looking back at the most popular books of 1999, chatting about the books I’ve read, the books I want to read and the books I have no interest in. Click ‘Show More’ for info & links.

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Mel’s original booktube tag video:

The most popular books of 1999 on GoodReads:

Questions:
1. Choose a year and say why.
2. Which books published in that year have you read, or if none, heard of.
3. Are there any books published in that year that sound interesting and would you read them now?
4. Most obscure sounding book?
5. Strangest book cover

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Get in touch

[DrHurd-bgkr]

Congratulations on your anniversary! My husband and I have been together since 1999 also. What a great year! ❤

[CharlieBrookReads]

Happy 20 year anniversary 🎉🎉🎉 I got together with my hubby in 1999 too so I have special memories to that year too ❤️❤️ 20 years seems like such a long time though makes me realize how fast time has gone by!! Xxx I enjoyed seeing you look back at the books ❤️I always love this tag ❤️

[YourTrueShelf]

This was so much fun to watch. Great idea on how to choose the year. If I choose my birth year I doubt I'll have read anything!! I've been with my husband since 2003, so think I'll choose that year & follow your lead... Good idea!! Will film the tag some time this month.

[JasmineReads]

Oooh this was fun, indeed! I'm the same, in that I mainly read new releases from the past year or so, or classics. I definitely overlook books from 1999, haha!

[laitae]

congrats on your anniversary! Such a fun tag! I remember enjoying Kurt Vonnegut's writing in the 90s when I was a teen, but I have not read anything by him since then.

[SylvainDementi]

If I had a boyfriend and the only thing I had to complain about him is that he reads in the night, I would be the happiest man alive! 😉

That have been said, this is a very interesting tag. Thanks for this great video and happy anniversary to you guys!

[lauriewallace]

I’m so happy for you that you are planning to read Motherless Brooklyn and Interpreter of Maladies. I read both in 1999 and loved them!

[joniheisenberg]

My daughter has read all the Harry Potter novels at least 5x each. She was fortunate to be 7 when the first book came out. She knows them inside out and has won multiple contests. I am mystified that she can reread them so many times. She has explained to me that each time you discover something new.

[brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Happy Anniversary-year! And you are full of surprises, a gothic-fase and Chuck Palahaniuk, who would have guessed. LoL. From the 1999-list I really liked Frank McCourt's book (and also the first one published a couple of years earlier), Mario Puzo's Omerta and White Oleander by Janet Fitch.

[ianp]

Good to see some old favourites cropping up on this - I really enjoyed Ghostwritten and think it is Mitchell's best book, Affinity is very atmospheric and well worth a read if you like Fingersmith, and Interpreter of Maladies is a beautiful short story collection - you should read them all!

[adriana]

Currently reading "The Philosopher's Chalice" while eating a Lemony Snicket.

[MangaHoarder]

Fruits Basket! LOL Not quite "the craft" but you are missing out on the gag: the secret of the Souma family is that they are the members of the zodiac, and when they hug someone of the "opposite" sex they transform into that animal. There's more to the series than this; it explores some surprisingly deep themes about understanding yourself, fitting in, and family relationships. It's actually still one of the most popular manga on the market! ^ ^

[distant_sounds]

You have to get to, 'Motherless Brooklyn, ' it's a wonderful read. Lionel is a fantastic character.

[SixMinutesForMe]

Loved seeing this (and what a special year, happy anniversary!)!

[juliae.]

Thank goodness it was a year you weren’t reading much that was contemporary or you may have had your head in a book instead of meeting your partner. Congratulations on 20 years!

[JustJanetAshley]

Lemony Snicket is a pen name of Daniel Handler.

[drlauratisdall]

I've read 21 of the 200 - but I was 13 in 1999 and most of the books I've read are the children's and YA ones :) Harry Potter doesn't get better as it goes along - the first three books are the best. I'm also keen to read Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies - I think it's a short story collection but as well as The Lowland, she has another novel called The Namesake which was also very good. Affinity is wonderful.

[paxtonghandi]

cool vid :) the intuitionist, invisible monsters, and motherless brooklyn all super worth it, tho i know what you mean about palahniuk, this might have been my favorite of his and i still don't remember the plot details very well

[yomismo]

I've only read four. The prisoner of Azkaban, The perks of being a wallflower, Invisible monsters and Hearts in Atlantis.


I remember an article of a spanish newspaper talking about what the author called the Palahniuk effect, it was something about being shocked about the first novel you read about an author, and that effect seems to affect you less and less with every novel.
I didn't suffered with Palahniuk (i likes someo of his novels and disliked others but the order of reading didn't have any effect) but i suffered it with Amelie Nothomb.


I don't agree about David Mitchell, his last novel is just ok, but i loved The bone clocks. And i think Affinity is not that fun, in fact Waters' ended a little depressed after finishing it, yes it's about spiritism but it's set on a women's jail. But i'm not sure because i didn't read it yet (i read Tipping the velvet and Fingersmith so it's the only one of that trilogy that i didn't read)


I always associate 1999 with Michael Cunninham's The hours but that was the year he won the Pulitzer, the novel was published in 1998.


To be fair there are a lot of forgotten bestsellers on that list

[kimswhims]

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson from 1999 has been sitting on my bookshelf for years, it's a clever book but was never able to get into it. 
You've reminded me that I want to read Jhumpra Lahiri's work.
Goodreads has distinct bias towards American and some popular (and a fair share of trashy) fiction.
I was probably reading a lot more trashy fiction back then but I think I also read Disgrace about 10 years later, not sure.
Chocolat, Tis, Edge of Reason, High Five, Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life by Alison Weir, apparently she's an ancestor, Eleanor not Alison :D 
Oh and read Harry Potter.... of course :D
Lemony Snicket yes needs to be a biscuit! Read that one, my eldest son was 10 at the time.  
Happy Anniversary :D