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

Horses for courses onelittlefish

Ruth Rendell, but not the police ones with Inspector Wexford - the stand-alone psychological novels. She also writes as Barbara Vine. (The latest few have perhaps not been quite as satisfying, so I would recommend going back a little way if possible.)

Early Robert Goddard - Painting the Darkness, In Pale Battalions, Past Caring, Into the Blue, Take No Farewell .... his later stuff is nowhere near as good, but hey, you say you like Dan Brown :o

How can anyone like John Irving? The world according to garp I wanted to tear half way through - it is just about people shagging and so tedious.

Have you tried Portrait of Dorian Grey. Fantastic book and a complete classic.

The problem you will have (according to my author friends) is that many US publishers are unwilling to continue publishing books by British authors unless the first one does spectacularly well.

I second Douglas Coupland. Have you tried Sarah Dunant or Rose Tremain? Both do good, very well written historical novels (on the whole).

Just read the rest of the thread...hurrah for the Ian McEwan haters! I work in a second-hand bookshop and we have SO many McEwans piling up on our shelves you wouldn't believe it. I hated Enduring Love and Amsterdam but Saturday really was the worst of the lot. (I did read one of his early novels, The Innocent, and that was OK, though, that was before he became 'the celebrated Ian McEwan').

Big thumbs up for Margaret Atwood here, I loves her, especially Cats Eye and The Robber Bride.

Also another vote for This Thing of Darkness - great book, made me want to go to Patagonia. Perhaps one day I will.

Though how one can claim to like Poe and to 'abhor any type of mystery' seems rather contradictory anyway! :)

Yes to Waugh - A Handful Of Dust is my favourite, followed by Vile Bodies.

Big YY to the Secret History - it's one of my favourite books. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is also great.

Trying to think of something similar to Wuthering Heights - that's a toughie. If you haven't tried the Moonstone by Wilkie Collins you might like that. Um...it IS a mystery, I must admit, but it's brilliant.

Not fiction, but if you like George Orwell, read Homage to Catalonia. One of the most life-changing books I've ever read.

Love Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford. Favourite short story writers are Katherine Mansfield and Dorothy Parker, but also read bits of Saki, can see someone above has already recommended him.

On my list to read is more Zola - have only read Germinal (very, very grim) and L'Assomoir. Nanna and Therese Raquin are on my list to read at some point.

Not sure I'm ever going to get round to Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina though (or Proust, come to that...)

Just noticed Swanker said, 'This Thing Of Darkness' too. Trust us - it's awesome.

God I thought I was fussy! And pmsl at Swanker for remembering how fussy I am! (Is that you btw, Swanker?).

Okay - here are a few that I have really enjoyed - some fiction and some non-fiction (but I love Stephen King too, so you might not trust me!).

This Thing Of Darkness - Harry somebody. It's fiction based on Darwin and Fitzroy's travels on The Beagle and is superb.

Isabel Allende - especially Paula

The Knife Man - Wendy Moore - about John Hunter who founded the Hunterian museum and was one of the first really 'famous' surgeons

The Woman In White / The Moonstone / others by Wilkie Collins

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Philip Pullman - the Sally Lockhart books are excellent and the His Dark Materials series is v good in not quite so rip-roaring a way

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

Microserfs / Girlfriend In A Coma / Life After God / Miss Wyoming - Douglas Coupland

A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers (this is amazing)

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Will come back with more once I've had a think.

OMG had completely forgotten about the Fionavar tapestry! I was mad for those when I was a student.

If you like historical fiction you could try Dorothy Dunnett?

Also I cannot recommend highly enough Guy Gavriel Kay (he's Canadian so hopefully not too hard to find in the US) - I prefer his stand alone novels to his High Fantasy trilogy (Fionavar) but they are all very good - perhaps start with "Tigana" or "A Song for Arbonne" or "The Lions of Al-Rassan"?

Oh and have you tried Joe Abercrombie - his trilogy starts with "The Blade Itself" I believe GRRM is a fan :)

No idea what you would think of this but it's an unusual take on the Flood story, quite well written.

Another vote for John Irving.

Also 'Geek Love' Kathryn Dunn, it's American so hopefully you can get it. About circus freaks, don't let that put you off.

Anything by Jonathan Carrol, I would start with 'Sleeping in flame' 'tis the best one. An American in Vienna with some brothers Grimm thrown in.

You'll probably hate them though, as you don't like The Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby.

If you like 50% of Nick Hornby you might like Tony Parsons.

On a more literary note, Paul Auster or Don DeLillo (both American)?

Also for a bit of light relief but still worth reading, you could try the Aurelio Zen detective series by Michael Dibdin, set in Italy. Recent tv adaptation had Rufus Sewell as Zen so you can read the stories and dream of him :)

for a few years after DC were born, i was bored to death by fiction, could not project myself or empathize at all.

try memoirs and biographies?

Another vote for John Irving. He's a little bit quirky but very American. I'd start with World According to Garp I think, then Cider House Rules, Hotel New Hampshire, Owen Meany, 158lb Marriage

Jane Smiley 'A Thousand Acres' - based on King Lear, set in the mid west US. She's a great writer.

Not American (set in India) but how about Rohinton Mistry 'A Fine Balance' - pretty much everyone I have given or suggested this to has absolutely adored it. In fact, I must reread...

You like Phillipa Gregory but don't like most fiction? (I loathe PG's liberties with historical truth & the obvious romantic feel).

What about Edgar Allen Poe, and Vikram Swarup?

Avoid the Wasp Factory it is awful!

Agree Daphne DuMaurier.
Try also Nevil Shute eg beyond the black stump, a town like alice.

Yep! Yah boo sucks to Ian McEwan!

I really hate Ian McEwan's writing style. The plot for Enduring Love really interested me but he writes it in such an awful way, so irritating and quickly every single character annoyed me. Atonement has the same problem.

20 pages is too soon.

You have to give a book longer than that in me 'umble opinion!