I'm not a big fan of advertiser appeasement influencing language, either. It's pretty disgusting, and frankly makes me want to communicate in an increasingly more formal- and possibly archaic- manner.

Hocus Pocus and Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut are both pretty underrated

Holds many of my favorite short stories, but one in particular gets me every time. "The Manned Missiles"

Anything and everything by Sinclair Lewis, but especially Babbitt. The book played a large part in Lewis winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930.

I couldn’t finish Something Happened, I don’t know what it was. Picture This though, just as good as Catch-22 and God Knows. I, Claudius was hilarious on the same vein and would highly recommend

I also enjoyed Islands by Huxley more. Not sure ab it's popularity though.

A Moveable Feast by Hemingway!

The Woman with the Velvet Necklace by Alexander Dumas. Found it for sale in an old book shop. Am a fan of Dumas but had never heard of the book. Turned out to be a very enjoyable short read with a gnarly ending.

The Mirror of the Sea is Joseph Conrad's major nonfiction work, in which he says everything he has to say about what it means to be a sailor and struggle with the wind and waves, visiting adventurous ports.

Winter of Our Discontent is one of my favorites and rarely mentioned.

I really want to read A Russian Journal, his recollection of visiting the Soviet Union. In his fiction, I'm curious to see if The Wayward Bus is good.

"Homage to Catalonia" by Orwell as well. His first-hand account fighting against the fascists in Spain.

Pale Fire - Nabokov

also Orwell, but Homage to Catalonia

A Widow for One Year by John Irving

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. Kinda gets overshadowed by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Samuel Beckett's Endgame.

How bout Invitation to a Beheading by Nabokov?

I’m a huge fan of Roughing It.

publishers cannot have guts, it is just a corporation with a marketing team and executives.
If a book is edited then they have no right to sell it without putting it in big letters in the title. the same wat that when a book is translated, the translator name should be stated. it should be obvious that the translated work is not the original.
You are right, the best option to publish things that have aged poorly (or just perceived to have aged poorly) is to include a preface.

"This book was written in ___, some behaviours and attitudes present in this book are unacceptable now but were considered normal then. they are not a reflection of peepeepoopoo publishing, but are presented in it's original form here as the author wrote it."

Otherwise it is sugar coating history.

But a book that is old enought to have "aged" should be in the public domain, this life + 70 years is utter BS.

I see a lot of people love Something Happened also. Some people even saying it's better than Catch-22.

Unified or not, the powers that be will always find a greedy way to go f&^* up someone else's country and economy and stability. What a mess we've made of Central America, and now "we" want to prevent them from escaping the mess we made when they come here for sanctuary.

I don't know why Huckleberry Finn is lauded as one of Twain's best and most progressive works; the Phelps chapters at the end are particularly frustrating. Pudd'nhead Wilson is far less known than Huck Finn but it's about 100× better, especially in terms of its anti-slavery message.

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

Pay attention to the word “perfect”. It is well on Its way to losing all meaning. People say it for so many responses.

Waiter: what can I get you today?

Me: I’ll have a BLT and a cup of soup

Waiter: perfect!

Me: no it’s not! It was a choice from the menu, and bastardization of very important words like “Perfect” take all meaning of it away until nothing is perfect anymore, and we all talk New Speak.

My wife: 🤦‍♀️