I dislike 95% of fiction. Help me rectify this. (Very detailed post!)

Have you read Colm Toibin Brooklyn

Colm Toibin
Writes Like
A Dream

Ooh I read a really good one about Vlad the Impaler too, which you might like. If you're interested I'll try and find out the title in the dusty alcoves of my mind (or Google!).

I liked 1000 Acres. Dissolution was good, certainly the historical aspect was interesting and well done.

Have you tried a memoirs of Hadrian by Margerite Yourcenar? (Or are you the wondrous MNer who recommended it to me?!) It is a fantastic book. The prose slips down like honeyed cream and you think you've been reading for no time at all but an hour's gone by....

Bernard Cornwall wrote the books that the series 'Sharpe' was based on.

It charts Sharpe's progress in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. He begins in Sharpe's Tiger as a Private in the 33rd Regiment of foot, who becomes a Sergeant by the end of the book, and an Ensign in the 74th Regiment who is transferred to the newly formed 95th Rifles as a Second-Lieutenant during Sharpe's Trafalgar. He is gradually promoted through the ranks, finally becoming a Lieutenant Colonel in Sharpe's Waterloo.

I have watched the series so many times, but it is always riveting.

It has politics (Sharpe is an officer by promotion rather than breeding), history and drama. Espionage, bravery...the list goes on. A really great insight into life as it was then, both from the view of Sharpe and the people around him.

Might you like Edith Wharton? Just after the 1900 cut off point and quite bleak and modern in tone. The House of Mirth is my favourite as it's the most miserable, but The Buccaneers is also brilliant. It's like a backstage pass to all those will-I-ever-win-a-husband romances, revealing exactly how the not-so-innocent girls go about it. It was unfinished, though, and the added on endings tend to be a bit, well, happy for Edith Wharton.

If you are a history fan, I recommend She-Wolves by Helen Castor. It's non-fiction but character-driven and has a narrative structure. It focuses on four queens pre-Elizabeth I.

amateur - I appear to have forgotten how to spell.

'Restoration' not bad; a couple of her others not bad too.

Also how about The Virgin Suicides (ace) or Middlesex (not bad) by Jeffery Eugenedes (sp?)?

The Road To Wigan Pier

CJ Sansom - Winter In Madrid. His others are whodunnits but they are brilliant and make Philippa Gregory look like the raving amatuer she is.

Me too chipmunk.

Loved 'Last Night in Twisted River', which was huge return to his earlier form imo. Eagerly awaiting his next.

Just came back to say Rose Tremain - Restoration.

Not offended - but not confused either! :)

I didn't mean to offend remus, I'm just surprised that that's what you remember from the books. I am a bit of a rabid fan.

Have you tried Georgette Heyer? Light, regency romances (don't stop reading here) - erudite and funny. Great reads.

Margaret George - Autobiography of Henry VIII which is excellent (she has also done Mary Queen of Scots which I wasn't so bothered about, and Cleopatra which I've not tried).

Gaudy Night - Dorothy L Sayers. Yes it's got a detective but it's a novel with an intellectual theme and love interest so bears reading for all that.

And talking of intellectual themes, how about Adrian Mole?

called

How about Giles Milton's history books for non-fiction too? Nathaniel's Nutmeg etc.

And there's a brilliant one about The Great Fire Of London called something like Day Of Judgement.

And, 'The Worst Journey In The World' by Aspley Cherry-Garrard' about Scott's journey to the pole. And there's a novel based on that too - not great literature by any stretch of the imagination but not bad caled 'Death On The Ice' by Robert Ryan.

I also second the Philip Pullman books - I was amazed at how quickly I became immersed.

As a story style non fiction I also thoroughly enjoyed "Touching the Void"

Have you tried Ballards "Empire of the Sun"?

Perhaps branch out into different non fiction.I love tales of peoples adventures such as Ffyona Campbells "On Foot Through Africa" or Lucy Irvines "Runaway" and"Castaway".

Confused, how? I read the books and that was my opinion of them. Why does that make me confused?

Then again, if we're really talking shag-fest-books then Pat Barker's, 'The Eye In The Door' must be up there in the top ten, I think.

If you like Philippa Gregory's Tudor series, you might like Sharon Penman.

I think you must be confused.

Owen Meaney - shag fest
A Widow For However Bloomin' Long It Is - shag-fest
Garp - boring shag fest

Me too, I mean there are sex scenes (in Irving), but they are not what they're all about.

It's like saying a picture of Dorian Gray is about painting. (Not Oscar's best work anyway).

John Irving full of sex? Must have missed that.

Yes to Dorian Grey and to Orwell and to Shute.

Agree that John Irvin is tedious and just full of boring sex for the most part.

Agree that Ian M is tosh.

I'd definately second a lot of Nevil Shute stuff. I'm also very fussy but could read Orwells "Down and out in Paris and London" time and time again,and Shute's "On the Beach".I've just bought "The Doomsday Book" to re read.
Also recommend "The Road" .How about John Wyndham?