I almost forgot that similar issue. Re-releasing old books isn't bad at all. But when you change the cover and make it more simplistic and boring? That's not it, man. Also, I find it silly when books get a movie adaptation, and then get re-released with covers depicting the movie actors.
I had issues with getting characters in Mistborn mixed up.
The catcher in the Rye I feel really captured the essence of how a bitchy angry teenager with a superiority complex would speak. But over all it was pretty bland.
Moby Dick is very wordy, maybe too wordy. But i makes excellent background noise if you listen o the audio book.
Yeah that's definitely part of its charm. I'm honestly surprised at how much the book meanders on irrelevant plots though. It even stops dead in the middle to tell a completely separate story of another ship, I can see why literary critics of its era hated it even though I personally enjoy it.
To be honest in general I'm very dismissive of this sort of attitude when it comes to literature, and I tend to read books in a sort of cold and detached way that prevents me from getting swept up in a book's prose like that. I don't know if I do this intentionally or if its just a product of how uptight I am. That said Moby Dick still manages to impress me and draw me into its world, just on its sheer force of personality. I particuarly love how it captures the mudane in its setting. A lot of the early digressions that show every little detail of port and sea life are impressively realized, and despite all the emphasis they're described with they still manage to appeal to my practical mindset.
Often they literally were paintings, like the classic works of Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta.
One of my favorite books is Tristram Shandy, a 1759 novel by Laurence Sterne, a deliberate disaster of a meandering mess, allegedly an "autobiography," where the titular character isn't even born into well into the second volume, which often goes off into irrelevant tangents lasting 100 pages or more. Laurence Sterne is sadly underrated these days, or more often, just not even known.
He later did concept sketches for the KING CONAN: CROWN OF IRON sequel script that John Milius wrote. Tragically never produced. You can find it online, it's fucking badass.
John Milius doing Conan would have been the most epic thing that ever happened.
Heinlein's early stuff was written for a younger audience, and it has that kind of pedagogic quality to it. Imparting his wisdom to the leaders of tomorrow. "Have Space Suit, Will Travel" is like 70 years old now but you could easily update it into a modern tract promoting STEM education.
