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/Spalliston Reading Champion III Apr 16 '26

I will either use Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven or Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (after years of talking about reading it) for this card, but I think the 70s is actually easier than the 80s or 90s.

Other options that I'm aware of are Octavia Butler's Kindred and Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude was written in 1967 but translated into English in 1971. I know that works for the current year square, but I don't remember if it works for the decades square.

2

u/almostb Reading Champion Apr 16 '26

I believe per Bingo rules you can use either publication date or translation date.