For me, Up the Down Staircase is a charming, funny epistolary novel about a school teacher in the city that I love.

Advise and Consent is tragic because its gay character faces legal discrimination but it is the best portrayal of the US Congress I have seen in print.

Dorothy Sayers murder mysteries feature brilliant sleuth Harriet Vane who has an egalitarian love story and is very much an early feminist without making it the focus of her identity. It also sets its mysteries within work place and other mundane settings providing great cultural history.

Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser fantasies are sexist but they are vivid ground breaking entertaining stories that shaped dungeons and dragons the game and fantasy as a genre.

Patrick OBrian Master and Commander and sequels about two friends in the British navy during the age of sail

When traveling on the German high speed ICE trains, you have access to the ICEportal website with a.o. information on your journey and newspapers. The portal also gives you some stuff to waste time on, which includes games. What I love about it, its a collection of simple classics, such as a bubble shooter, a 2048 style puzzle, an arcade motorbike game, and all without the typical freemium advertising or grinding.
Does anyone know about similar offerings? I really don't mind paying, I do mind the advertising or grinding which seems to have become standard. Or even better, if anyone knows how to have the ICEportal games without being on the wifi of the train? What are your thoughts?

I recently watched the limited TV series dramatisation of Les Miserables and really enjoyed it. This made me wonder if there are any recent, faithful adaptations of Treasure Island as either TV serial or movie?

I love hearing about obscure or forgotten films that people are passionate about. I was in a thread on Reddit, IIRC, and someone mentioned The Man From Earth. I just watched it for the first time and I can see its appeal.

I'm sure you have more than one. For me, a couple of favorites off the top of my head are Wristcutters: A Love Story and Wings of Desire. And some old timey classics that I rarely hear mentioned anymore are I Know Where I'm Going and The Lady Eve.

What's a guaranteed hit, not everyone's favorite, but anyone can enjoy? (i.e. maybe not 9 or 10, but no ratings below a 6)

Shawshank redemption is my #1 pick. Others up there i think would be the Sandlot & The prestige.

Pretty much the title.

Not trying to steer the conversation, but also not intending for answers to be cult films (they're cult classics for a reason) or superhero-movies-are-so-overdone (because they are) takes.

Looking for the popular movies that you truly loathe and why despite their seemingly universal praise.

I just caught part of one of the newer Terminator movies as I was flicking through channels on TV, and I was only able to identify it because a scene with a visibly 60-plus Arnold Schwarzenegger made me realize he probably hasn't acted in a decade and a half otherwise. I've never seen any of the Terminator movies... a fact which never fails to elicit shocked responses in movie conversations. I've also never watched any of the Alien, Indiana Jones, or Harry Potter franchises, am yet to watch any of the Shreks (despite one of my exes quoting them all the time and telling me she basically learned most of her life lessons from them), nor any of the Toy Story movies. I think the only Pixar movie I've ever watched is Up. I do mix up Pixar and Dreamworks all the time, so that whole debate between the two goes over my head, but I know I've never found Nemo or seen Frozen, or practically any of the others.

Obviously this is most egregious for stuff that's been released during your lifetime, or maybe adulthood, but feel free to include whatever you've never been particularly convinced you've missed out on, from any era.

While the latest hype-trains and the guaranteed oldies give me a reading list a few thousand books long, I like to read things which are left by the wayside. This list here is a good example. The author gives a list of genre classics. Books which aren't good enough to make the top 1000 books of all time, but are classics in their own genre and influenced a lot of future authors. The Princess and the Goblin is a good example. Everyone interested in Tolkien and the Inklings has read it, as well as those who like modern fairy tales, but it doesn't crop up much in recommendations lists. These are books which aren't quite as commonly discussed, but still good and important for people interested in the genre.

So, if you have a favorite genre or sub-genre I would love to read your 'genre classics' list, with maybe a sentence about why I should enjoy it. Not quite as comprehensive as a class on books, more than a bullet point.

Edit:
I just realized I didn't change the title. By the 'gap', I originally meant the gap between the books everyone suggests from the past and the mountain of dredged pulp you find in libraries and bookstores: books which are worth still reading, even if they aren't one of the 'Classics'. More like underrated recommendations.

If there's a better or more commonly used term for this let me know, but my idea of an "expired classic" is a game that was acclaimed and beloved at the time of its release but that would be nearly unplayable or unacceptable by modern standards. Not just less impressive or weaker, mind you, but outright bad. Think "aged poorly" but like, REALLY poorly.

The quintessential example is Goldeneye 007. While absolutely landmark for its time, gamers that pick it up now would likely be baffled by its controls and appalled by its significant, unforgivable framerate issues. Even some people that used to love playing it have a hard time enjoying it now (myself included). It is a game that has "expired" over time.

The expiration doesn't have to be due to technical issues either. It could be due to cultural issues, design issues, or any other factor that makes the same significantly less palatable today, even to those that want to play it!

What are some other examples, and why have they expired?

A classic can be a franchise or just a standalone game. Some examples of current classics can be old arcade/Nintendo games such as The Legend Of Zelda, Mario, and Pac-Man, or slightly newer ones like Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, or The Sims.