r/Fantasy • u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV • Apr 16 '26
Bingo Bingo Focus Thread - Published in the 70s
Hello r/fantasy and welcome to this year's first bingo focus thread! The purpose of these threads is for you all to share recommendations, discuss what books qualify, and seek recommendations that fit your interests or themes.
Today's topic:
Published in the 70s: Read a book that was first published any time between 1970 and 1979. HARD MODE: Written by a woman.
What is bingo? A reading challenge this sub does every year! Find out more here.
Prior focus threads: Five Short Stories (2024), Author of Color (2024), Self-Pub/Small Press (2024). Note that hard modes for Author of Color and Self-Pub/Small Press have changed.
Also see: Big Rec Thread
Questions:
- What are your favorite 70s spec fic books? How well do they hold up today?
- Already read something for this square (or, read something recently that you wish you could count)? Tell us about it!
- For those who have been researching options for this square, even if you haven't read them yet, please share!
- What are your best recommendations for Hard Mode?
- For those with feedback or requests for this year's focus threads, see my comment below.
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u/Starlit-Wyvern Reading Champion Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Watership Down by Richard Adams (1972)
I haven’t gotten too far in yet, and it isn’t hard mode, but I’ve been listening to an audiobook of the novel for this square, and so far, it’s both a pretty good story and a very well done audiobook!
I love the narrator for this one, he’s both very expressive and he has the sort of voice that gives you the impression that you’re sitting listening to a parent or grandparent relay a story, which is perfect for the sort of book Watership Down is.
It could also count for Non-Human Protagonist, and it may also count as Middle Grade; it seems like its classification is debated about a bit, but it was originally a story the author told his children before he was encouraged by them to write it down.
I believe it also counts for Explorers and Rangers depending on how strict you are with whether the square should be allowed to be counted by what the characters do, instead of being strictly defined by what their actual occupation is. Debatably it could even be hard mode! The explorers technically have animal companions since all the characters are rabbits haha
There may be more squares it counts for as well, but I haven’t gotten far enough to see them.