I was pleasantly stunned when I recently re-read Foundation - after reading them in junior high school, some 25 years ago. I actually remembered most of the characters (note, there's pretty much a protagonist per chapter and the original trilogy spans... 10? thousand years).

On a different note - Hurki Murakami's non-fictional account of the Tokyo subway gas attack "Underground" is a harrowing, but rewarding read. And while tragic, "Norwegian Wood" is lighter, and also great (I actually think his best book among those I've read is "South of the Border" - in a similar sense that "The great Gatsby" is good (unsurprising as Murakami translated Scott Fitzgerald).

https://www.cupblog.org/2013/05/07/haruki-murakami-on-transl...