I grew up reading SF and never really quit, though I get bored with space opera and the fantasy series that read like the perils of Pauline rather than investigating interesting possibilities...

FYI Ray Bradbury worked on the screenplay for Moby Dick back ~ 1950 and it is still my favorite film version.

Try some Mack Reynold, Hal Clement, Clifford D Simak and Ted Sturgeon who did some great stuff ... I haunted old thrift book stores to track down affordable paperbacks