Mason & Dixon By Thomas Pynchon Henry Holt Alias Grace By Margaret Atwood Nan A. Talese/Doubleday Cold Mountain By Charles Frazier Atlantic Monthly Press Because They Wanted To By Mary Gaitskill Simon & Schuster The Reader By Bernhard Schlink Pantheon Close to the Machine By Ellen Ullman City Lights Books The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman Farrar Straus & Giroux Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer Villard How Proust Can Change Your Life By Alain de Botton Pantheon Echoes of a Native Land By Serge Schmemann Knopf

readers' choice HOW SALON'S READERS VOTED ON THE BOOKS OF 1997. - - - - - - - - - - - - For the nearly 200 readers who responded to our informal poll, 1997 was the year of "Cold Mountain." Charles Frazier's post-Civil War epic (also chosen by Salon's editors) won more votes (19) than any other title. Jon Krakauer came in second for his breathless Everest disaster account, "Into Thin Air," with Don DeLillo breathing down his neck (Krakauer probably appreciates the warmth) for "Underworld," which garnered 15 votes. (If you're wondering why "Underworld" didn't make Salon's list, see our review.) The next most popular choice for best book of 1997 was Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" (11 votes). Unfortunately, McCourt's memoir of his Irish boyhood was published in 1996. Behind the four leaders, a handful of books got five or more votes each: Thomas' Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon" (8), Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things" (7), David Foster Wallace's "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (6), Phillip Roth's "American Pastoral" (5) and Sebastian Junger's "A Perfect Storm" (5). After that comes a blizzard of titles, most getting one or two votes, testifying to the wide-ranging tastes of Salon readers. A few authors voted for their own books (cheeky monkeys!) and several stood up for titles published years ago -- with Jack London's "Call of the Wild" ranking as the most belated; it was published 94 years ago. SALON | Jan. 19, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - -