OP, I think you kind of miss the point here... Close to none of the classics we know would be published today, you can't judge a book by this factor. Besides, it very much is about whether you enjoyed it or not. You don't really criticize the book in your post: you name subjective things you didn't like (boring prose, unintrestting characters, lack of proper pacing), then proceed to declare that Foundation is not a classic. None of us have the right to say that in general, even less so if your points are not concrete (aside from the pacing, I'll admit it is a bit weird). Finally, why were you expecting the author to cut right to the meat, as you said? As far as I can tell, books have only recently started to become so fast-paced. Not to say that all stories prior to the 21st century are snore fests; I think they simply have a (mostly) different style.