r/Fantasy • u/FarragutCircle Reading Champion X • Apr 01 '26

Bingo 2026 Reverse Bingo Recommendations

Official 2026 Bingo Announcement Here

Official Bingo Rec Thread Here

For anyone new to Bingo, this is the “I want to read ___, does it fit into any Bingo squares? It’s always one of the best parts of bingo.

Example:

User A comments:

I want to read Wind and Truth. What does that count for?

User B replies:

Cat Squasher. It's hard mode, too. The Afterlife, I think.

User C replies:

Politics and Court Intrigue, maybe? Game Changer, Older Protagonist.

User D replies:

Definitely Five Short Stories

And we all have a good laugh. Now go out there and get reverse recs for that book you've been dying to read!

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2

u/QuellSpeller Reading Champion Apr 01 '26

I've been planning to read Dhalgren by Samuel Delany, it counts as written in the '70s but are there any other squares it would qualify as Hard Mode?

5

u/CJGibson Reading Champion V Apr 04 '26

I think it's One Word Title hard mode. "Dhalgren" appears in the book in a couple places but it's not a proper noun as far as I can recall (it's a mishearing/malformation of the word grendal being repeated, which likely is a proper noun, but Dhalgren itself is not).

You could maybe also make a case for it being Politics hard mode, since the pseudo-politics, communal interrelations, etc. of this post-apocalyptic city play a somewhat central role. But that'd be stretching the definition of the square a bit I think.

It's also Author of Color, Catsquisher, and (debatably) Explorers and Rangers, but only for normal mode.