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

I'm very similar to you and very very fussy!

I second the suggestion of Iain Banks. The Wasp Factory, The Steep Apporach to Garberdale, The Crow Road are my faves. I don't like his sci fi stuff as I don't like sci fi but the way he rights is good.

That said, I loved the Handmaid's Tale. That's great. Her other stuff, a bit boring tbh.

I am currently reading The Other Hand which is one of the best things I have read in ages and a surprisingly 'easy' read too.

Oh, and ignore other posters. Enduring Love is the most gratingly irritating book in the history of literature. I hate it with the fury of a thousand suns.

Anita Shreve and John Irving.

Earlier stuff of both.

I see you liked Wuthering Heights, so have you tried anything by the other Brontes? Jane Eyre or Agnes Grey?

If you like Poe then have you tried Lovecraft? He was influenced by Poe and you can really see it with some of his stories.

I agree with IamtheSnorkMaiden about Daphne Du Maurier. Out of all her books I've read, the only one I disliked was Hungry Hill. The others have been really good. I also agree with whoever suggested Call The Midwife (was it BertieBotts?), that book was excellent.

Harry Thompson's This Thing of Darkness. Fantastic book, and loads of facts in there too.

You need Remus... she's very fussy discerning too

"My personal favourite of recent years is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell."

yy - loved it!

Yes to Kite RUnner. How about Le Carre - the Perfect Spy is the perfect book IMHO.

Ooh yes, Forsyth is a great suggestion. And perhaps Len Deighton and Geoffrey Household for Rogue Male - really immersive thrillers.

Have you tried Pratchett? Or Ursula Le Guin?

Agree that Iain M Banks might be worth a try if you like Martin, big meaty "masculine" stuff.

Have you tried Trollope or Vanity Fair?

My personal favourite of recent years is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Yes, Cormac McCarthy. Bleak but brilliant.

Labyrinths by Borges (collection of stories)

Frederick Forsyth - Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File etc
Robert Harris - Fatherland, Enigma etc

Daphne Du Maurier - I don't know anyone that hasn't loved Rebecca.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini.

Totally random list, but maybe something there for you.

If you liked The Doomsday Book, then the other Connie Willis books you could try are To Say Nothing Of The Dog (also time travel, but light(ish), funny and romantic) and Blackout/All Clear (two linked time travel books set in the Blitz).

Try Jane Smiley, particularly A Thousand Acres. Also Sue Gee, Niall Williams, Sara Banerji and Barbara Comyns. All write what I feel are 'proper' books like Barbara Kingsolver

Oh, and also, GLen Duncan wrote a book called THe Last Werewolf, which...no, stop! COME BACK!!

GD wrote a series of highly literary and totally ignored novels, and thought sod this, I'm writing a crappy genre book. Only of course if you're a literary type writer you can't just turn off the good prose style, so what he ended up with was probably the first truly sophisticated, beautifully written (but also violent and sexually explicit!) monster-horror book since Dracula. I can't recommend it enough and am desperate for the sequel to come out. If you don't believe me, read this

I think my tastes will be too twee to help, have you tried Saki? Short stories are often what I go for being fussy and he surprised me. The loved one by Evelyn Waugh is nice too, but do people who usually dislike mystery usually dislike the 20s/30s too? Have you read many plays?

Capote might be good, or sticking close to non fiction Tom Holland writes very good classical histories. Spartans and things.

I also really recommend the whole series of books by Edward St Aubyn.

In my not-at-all-humble opinion, in the future he'll be far more highly praised than McEwan et. al.

St Aubyn was the son of a bitter old Cornish aristrocrat and a very wealthy American woman, and his father abused him as a child, very sadly. The novels fictionalise his childhood, drug-addled youth and attempts to find redemtpion with wife and children.

They are bitterly funny, deeply ironic, and very beautifully written. There are 5 in the series and the most recent one (Mother's Milk I think) was Booker shortlisted.

Norwegian wood by haruki murakami?

Hmmm its tricky.

Will have a think and come back

And if you like Americana how about some mid-20th century American writers?

NAthanael West - Miss Lonelyhearts (don't read it if you're depressed)

Ira Levin - wrote the books on which an amazing number of good films were based - A Kiss Before Dying, Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby

Then there's Richard Yates of course - Easter Parade, REvolutionary Road

Have you read Cormac McCarthy? The Road is punishing but worthwhile

Also try the books by Persephone Books They publish absolutely exquisite editions of unfairly neglected women writers and there are some absolute beauties in there.

Have you gone back into the canon a bit more? Most of this is fairly contemporary. Some suggestions

Ford Madox Food - The Good Soldier - beautiful and with a shocking sad twist
Daniel Defoe - Journal of a Plague Year - amazing historical novel about the Plague (obvs!)
Have you read A Tale of Two Cities? EVen people who hate Dickens love that
What about all the Evelyn Waugh books?
Crime and Punishment is so gripping but if you don't like mysteries it might wind you up
Therese Raquin by Zola
Madam Bovary by Flaubert

Coming back ot modern times how are you with Iris Murdoch? I would recommend kicking off with A SEvered Head

Have you read any Philip pullman too? I graduated straight from hp to his dark materials in my teens and adore them as a series. Mallory blackman also writes excellent young adult fiction if that is your thing.

Another avenue is the sociology, social history, ethnography type things where the author immerses themselves in a culture in order to get a real feel for it, they are often published in very readable formats. I've just read gang leader for a day for my sociology course and that was really interesting.

You sound like me! I get bored of fiction so easily because it seems so contrite often, but it becomes hard going to keep reading non fiction at times too. Sometimes I just want to read something without it trying to teach me anything.

Some books I've enjoyed the most recently (and I mean over the last few years) have been autobiography type things, less predictable and clichéd but still reads as a story you can get involved in.

Eg call the midwife, bill bryson, Danny Wallace. I also enjoyed "two caravans " although it has written out accents which irritate me sometimes.

Oh yy to In Cold Blood, Toughing the Void and Wild Swans!

Your lists are fairly similar to my likes and dislikes, although you seem to have a couple of books in the wrong list...

I have ditched soo many novels in recent years that I started a thread here, but it is specifically asking for light reading, so it may not be your thing.

Have you read The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson? It would fit with your non-fiction/pop-psychology criteria.

Anyhoo, for fiction, I put forward:

Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

As you have lots of Americans on your good list, have you tried Alice Walker and Toni Morrison?

I'll try and think of more...

Try the Helliconia Trilogy by Brian Aldiss. I know Sci-fi isn't evetyon'es cup of darjeeling but I like it. Anything by Ian Banks (and Ian M Banks too come to think of it.

How about John Updike?

In Cold Blood -Truman Capote.
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury.
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley.
Wild Swans - Jung Chang.

What about Game of Thrones if you like George R. R. Martin?
Iain Banks?

If you like non-fiction have you tried the non-fiction which is written in the style of a story (like Wild Swans, above)? I am thinking things like Touching the Void, Into the Wild, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, etc. That way you get the plot and characters but also the non-fiction element.

Try this website: what should I read next?