seems to me there was a discussion here a bit ago of the merits/demerits of Asimov's writing and of the Foundation Trilogy in particular.
You might enjoy
Paul Krugman's introduction to a new edition of the trilogy.
Like Krugman, after I read the trilogy, I wanted to be Hari Seldon when I grew up. I didn't achieve that, didn't come as close as Krugman (and even he didn't come close), but a lot of my studies in college were shaped by the question of what does it mean to be human.