Lara asked this question recently regarding her own reading, and I’d been pondering it since then until I came across this article from Sophie Vershbow: “When Is it Okay to Not Finish a Book?”
So how does a conscientious person decide when to give up and when to stick it out to the end? The debate is much older than the internet, but in online reading communities such as Goodreads, or on the literary sides of Instagram or TikTok, the acronym “DNF,” for “Did Not Finish,” abounds—as do arguments about when doing so is appropriate.
There are those who strongly believe that no matter how badly you want to abandon a book, you should always finish it, and plenty of others adamant that life is too short to ever read something you’re not thoroughly thrilled with.
I love Sophie Vershbow’s writing, especially when she’s writing about publishing, books, and reading, and the article gave me even more to think about.
I didn’t have an answer to the “why” part of the question until very recently because my answer to “when do you DNF,” or “when is it okay,” is “Whenever the fuck I want to stop reading something.”
“When?” Whenever I want!
I don’t suffer from completism, nor do I feel required to start at book 1 if I want to read book 3 of a series. If I don’t like something, I move on. There’s no Reading Police that are going to come find me. I don’t think so, anyway. If they show up on my porch, I’ll ask to see their warrant. (And I’ll definitely read it to the end!)
But then I hit a hard stop in a book recently that seemed so absurd that I had to sit and think deliberately whether I wanted to continue. I knew I had a few “whys” when I DNF. This was a new one, though.
I was looking for some examples of the “Touch her and DIE” trope, which typically does not work for me but I was curious. And in the book I was reading, the hero’s pov chapter starts with grumpy ruminating about all the large luxury business buildings…in the middle of Washington DC’s metro area.
Allegedly the hero is in a building with thirty-plus floors?
So this may be a bit too inside-baseball style pedantry, but DC is a very short city. Petite, even. There are laws from the 1890s about how tall a building can be based on width of the street it is on:
The 1899 Height of Buildings Act established that no building could be taller than the Capitol (289 feet), but if that’s the case, why don’t we have a city full of 28-story buildings? Well, in 1910 the act was amended to restrict building heights even further: no building could be more than twenty feet taller than the width of the street that it faces. So, a building on a street with an 80-foot right-of-way could only be 100 feet, or 10 stories.
(Source: We Love DC.com – this article is neat. I really went full nerd on this one.)
I really had to ask myself if I wanted to keep reading! The version of DC in the book was so off the wall, it was nearing Rrrrrrromantasy territory. It was so absurd.
(I did keep reading but I ended up DNFing because the narration kept describing coffee as anything but coffee – “bitter brew,” “dark liquid,” “bitter liquid.” JUST. SAY. COFFEE. IT’S FINE.)
So now my brain has latched onto this query and I wanted to ask y’all as well – have you thought about why you DNF, and what your latest hard stop was? (And is it alternative descriptions for “coffee?”)
Elyse: For me a hard stop is usually content related.
I don’t want to read about sexual assault, violence to children or animals on the page.
I also DNF a lot of books because I can’t get into them, but then return to them later. I’m very much a mood reader and sometimes the world building is taking too long or the romance is too slow burn, and I switch to something else and come back when I’m in a different mindset.
Sometimes I want a quick hit of adrenaline like a thriller and sometimes I want lots of world building and detail like fantasy. It just depends on my headspace.
Amanda: I think the posing of the question “when is it okay” feels silly to me because the answer is whenever you want. There’s no shame in not finishing and I personally love to rant. #HaterAtHeart
However, if I am recommending a book that I finished and know there’s some pacing issue, I’ll definitely mention, “Oh, you do have to stick with it for X amount of pages” and then they can go with god.
I DNF a lot. Like a lot a lot. If the mood isn’t right. If the characters are annoying. If it’s too twee. Usually within the first 50 pages.
Sarah: The first 50 pages part is key for me, too, especially because as I said on a recent podcast, so many romances lately seem to have an inciting incident that is complete career and personal destruction or some form of cataclysmic humiliation for the heroine and my secondhand embarrassment meter cannot handle it.
Claudia: I am a recovering “completionist.” In the past, if a book wasn’t holding my attention, I’d often skip a few paragraphs or pages. I don’t this as much now. I think for me is a mix of my own moods and whether something in the book annoys me, like the example that Sarah gave.
Shana: I consistently DNF about a third of the books I start. I often feel vaguely guilty about it because I’m refusing to consume someone’s lovingly crafted art. Also, a DNF has the potential to turn into a ranting review and I love a good rant.
But I decided long ago that my happiness is more important than reading a book I hate in service of others. I often check Goodreads to reassure myself that another reader has already clocked whatever made my teeth set on edge.
I often DNF when I pick a book with a trope or theme I usually dislike and then, surprise, I don’t like it. Last week, I was burning through Lillian Lark’s monster romances when I got to Stalked by the Kraken. Stalking in a romance doesn’t usually work for me but I like Lark so I tried it anyway. The hero sees the heroine from across the room and stalks her for a week while she has the creepy crawling feeling of someone watching her. I hated it. So I skipped that book and went on to the next one.
Sometimes I’ll be happily reading until I stumble over one of my least favorite character traits, usually an alphahole or character who stubbornly believes their billionaire love interest is inherently better than they are. When that happens I limp along for a while before admitting defeat.
Tara: I agree with a lot of what everyone else is saying. One of the best days in my life was when I finally acknowledged that life is too short to read books I don’t love.
For the most part, I’ll DNF a book because I’m bored or because I don’t like the characters. I also have a hard time reading romances with characters who have the same name as me, my husband, or my kids. I just bailed on a book with a character named Tara, because her self esteem was through the floor.
I’ll also bail on a book if it’s too sweet or so emotional that it feels absurd.
Sarah: I still can’t believe you got a romance where the two leads had your daughters’ names. Like, whoa.
Tara: Oh yeah. I regret that one.
I wasn’t paying attention to character names when I requested an ARC because I was so excited by the best friends-to-lovers premise. Then it arrived and I saw the best friends have the same names as my daughters. So that one is more of a “will never start” than a DNF.
Lara: I DNF a lot of books. Sometimes for the reasons above, but sometimes because I’m just not in the headspace to read. No book stands a chance in those circumstances, or maybe only the truly spectacular. When I DNF I don’t get far – maybe 5% in – then I chuck in the towel. When I am in the mood for reading and I still DNF a book, it’s either some kind of ick or I just don’t care about the characters at all.
Sarah: It’s really interesting to me that so many people (not in this conversation – I was re-reading Sophie Vershbow’s article again because it’s so good) feel like starting a book requires finishing it. I’ve just never felt that way, even when I skim skim skim to find out who did it and move on with my life.
Lara: I wonder if the source of the book matters. If I’ve bought the book, it physically pains me to DNF. I get properly grumpy about it. When I had limited access to romance novels (small town library), I’d also persevere more often out of desperation for more.
Sarah: I bet it does matter! When there were so few romances available to me, I stuck with a lot of books I’d tap out of now.
Claudia: Yes, or a book that took forever to be available from the library!
Sarah: Scarcity or lack of options, plus having waited and invested time? Oh yeah. That’s a hard situation!
Claudia: Definitely a bit of FOMO.
Sarah: And isn’t FOMO a wild, unpredictable motivator?!
Claudia: Sure is!
Sarah: I know I’ve done somewhat out of character things because of FOMO-influence. WEIRD how powerful it can be.
Elyse: I can’t get over how many books I’ve read because of social media pressure that were terrible.
Shana: I saw a TikTok that recently where @jennis_bookclub talked about popular books that she is not straight enough to read.
(Sarah: I was going to embed but it auto-plays and I don’t love that, so that’s a link to the video in question.)
I felt so seen! I honestly have no FOMO about many Booktok romances because when I try to read them it’s pretty clear they’re not going to work for me.
Elyse: Also, not to be morbid, but I’ll die with books unread. Is it really worthwhile to push through a meh book when I could read something I love instead?
Sarah: My father always says you can’t die if you don’t have unfinished books. It’s his secret to immortality.
Elyse: I’m gonna live forever.
Susan: I remember the bad old days when I would never DNF queer fiction regardless of quality, because it was so hard to find! And now it’s everywhere and I don’t have to finish bad books for crumbs.
(Ask Me About Terrible Queer Fiction, I Dare You)
What I find now is that if a story sets up a mystery and I solve it before the character even has a clue, I can’t keep reading. I have asked friends, “What chapter does the protagonist realise [x]?” and if the answer isn’t soon, I have to bail.
And weirdly, characters betraying their loved ones without even noticing drives me bats. I’ve tried to read the Whyborne & Griffin series five times, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I get to the same page of Bloodline and have to stop. Like, I can read a lot of dubious things, but feeling disappointed or disgusted by the characters is a thing I can’t get past
Basically my thoughts on DNFing are that it’s always okay, and you’re allowed to do it for whatever reason.
… And there’s always the option of just skipping to the last three chapters, which is how I read thrillers.
Sarah: I misread this as “Skipping the last three chapters” of a thriller, and thought you were skipping the whole ending and was IMPRESSED.
Susan: “I’ve seen enough!” [drops book, leaves]
Sarah: A true champion!
What about you? Do you finish the books you start or do you DNF? Have you thought about why you DNF, if you do?
#HaterAtHeart
I haven’t always DNF’d a lot, but I’ve always been adamant that I don’t need permission. It’s my reading time, and I’ll spend it how I want. Grrr.
I’ve been doing it more lately, and I think it’s because I’ve started keeping track of my reading so I’m less inclined to let books languish on a soft DNF because I need to know what to put on my reading chart. It’s the closest I come to reviewing, and I’ve found some satisfaction in articulating a DNF reason. (Score another one for the SBTB yearly book tracking spreadsheet post.)
I DNF for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes, like Sarah said, there’s some weirdness that jars me out of the story and makes me lose faith in it. The old suspension of disbelief problem. Sometimes it’s not jarring, but I can tell by the author’s narrative choices that I’m going to be out of sync with the book the whole time. I’ll even DNF at ~75% because of some last straw that makes me no longer care.
One kind of new-to-me reason is when the writing has technical issues that I’m not willing to put up with. I find a lot of first person books are too “thinky.” The character’s thoughts churn and churn the same ideas over and over, and I’ll DNF because the story is stuck. Sometimes the language and/or grammar will be weird. If I keep stopping to wonder over strange word use or have to rewrite sentences in my head to make them make sense or ask aloud if anyone even copy edited this, I’ll DNF.
I’m reading way too much Kindle Unlimited these days which is very hit and miss on quality and there can be a lot of satisfaction is hitting the “Return to Kindle Unlimited” button in the middle, or beginning, of a book.
(Whew. I think I needed that.)
Unless I’m obligated for a review, I’ll DNF if, after several attempts, I just can’t get into it based on subject, writing style, etc… And, depending on the type of review I need to write, I can still do a few sentences without being mean.
I recently got a “read now” from netgalley. The book isn’t grabbing me–a NYT bestselling author–and it’s not formatted nicely. The ARC’s single spacing reads like run-on sentences, visually. It’s written in an older style with super-long paragraphs. The story just isn’t pulling me in. I decided to DNF.
DNF-ing gets easier for me with age. I’ll quit at any point in the book, depending on the reason.
The thing that will cause me to dnf instantly is ableism. I’ve dnf’d quite a few contemporary romance books due to the casual use of ableist slurs by characters. I deleted one ebook that I’d bought because the hero repeatedly described an anatagonist as a “f*cktard.” I’ve written emails to a couple of authors whose books I had to dnf when characters used “lame” over and over and over to describe anything and everything they didn’t like. I don’t dnf for slurs used once or twice to demonstrate something about the character. I just prefer not to have to deal with them at all, the way that racist slurs have pretty much vanished from the romance genre.
I have a high tolerance for geographical errors. I can’t remember the title, but there was a recent romance by an Aussie author who hilariously described Seattle’s grimy, industrial Georgetown area as a bustling tech hub. I drive through Georgetown on my work commute, and still chuckle about that from time to time.
I used to be the reader who couldn’t stand to DNF a book. And now, life is too short to read things that I don’t enjoy.
There are a few things that are more likely to cause me to DNF: first person narration, characters I’m not rooting for, characters that are either too perfect or blatantly stupid (usually age related, which is why I generally avoid YA/new adult), too many “main” characters that all blend together or have no distinguishing characteristics, and/or a story-world that’s too complex. I’ve also been known to DNF a book that’s too similar to something I read recently (e.g. I started the Wolf & the Woodsman not long after reading For the Wolf, and they were just too similar. Plus the latter felt like better writing, IMO).
That said, the majority of my DNF books are victims of my mood reading. I mostly read through my library’s digital collections, so I tend to request books that look good in the moment. By the time the hold is available, I often can’t remember why I requested it and/or where I saw the recommendation! Sometimes I’ll read it & love it, sometimes I start it, feel “meh” about it, but finish and think it was worth it, and sometimes I just put it down because it’s not holding my attention (whoever above said it’s not “STICKY” enough, that’s exactly how I feel!!!).
I love how @DiscoDollyDeb phrased it – “quiet DNFs” – they’re just not as interesting as other books that are in my TBR. Sometimes I go back to them, sometimes I don’t. There are a handful of books that I’ve started multiple times and they just don’t grab me enough.
I do my most varied reading when I have uninterrupted blocks of time: vacations, airport time/plane rides, etc. Then I’m more likely to stick with a book that’s not as interesting simply because what else am I doing?
Kindle samples have saved me from a lot of DNFs. However, I’ve found my DNFs increasing with a lack of patience to slog through TSTL or mean characters. More sci-fi series, especially with female MCs are hitting my DNF pile. By book 2 the FMCs weaken, and by book 3 the stories are often about the male side characters.
@footiepjs: I’m really, really glad I’m not alone in disliking the cliched, overused terms for coffee and tea.
Also, blatant factual errors (I’m looking at you, Jasmine Guillory in Wedding Date, about that screaming HIPAA violation you threw in there) will also throw me out of a story. Sometimes it’s egregious enough for me DNF, sometimes it’s not.
I DNF if after 3 chapters the book leaves me cold. Want to give the author enough time to warm up but 3 chapters is my limit if a book fails on the writing, character, plot interest
Or momentum. Some books make great audio books, some are better read and lingered over.
I don’t think I’ve ever finished a book out of a sense of obligation, but, as a passionate reader, I just didn’t DNF stuff in my youth. Feeding that passion was just too much work to waste viable reading material. Your options were the library or the bookstore, which involved heaving your butt out of the house, and which further involved wearing pants and–worse–spending money. (I always had library fines.) Even discussing the rationale of DNF betrays how privileged we are with our ereading devices, cheap book emails, and one-click purchases.
I shamelessly DNF all the time now. The modified version of the Nancy Pearl rule just crystalized my ongoing behavior. If it were an actual guideline, my current age guarantees that I would never need to read more than a bad chapter or two.
Why do I DNF? Crappy writing style, vocab, grammar or editing, overblown or performatively stylized writing, excessive dishonesty or stupidity on the part of characters, bland anything, personal twitchiness, inability to suspend disbelief, wind from the northeast. . . in short, I DNF because I feel like it. Sometimes, I merely put a book on pause because it isn’t working for me in the moment, but time and being spoiled for choice turn that book into a DNF. I’m legally and morally obligated to pay for the books I buy or borrow, not finish them.
I think it would be an interesting counterpoint to the DNF question to also discuss the practice of rereading. Some people never reread a book or so they claim. Others, myself included, have whole stables of books they gleefully reread. Nothing is more comforting to me than dipping into a favorite author’s work and hunkering down with a juicy reread. It probably goes back to the good old days when a healthy keeper shelf kept you sane till you could get your library fines paid off or your holds came in. Personally, I would love to see a post devoted to what the Bitchery rereads and why.
By 75 pages, I know if I’m going to get through a book or not. I get a lot of library books, and I churn them. Terrible character names are enough to make me quit a book. When I’m not expecting someone to be a Vampire or a Shifter, that’s enough to quit (different if I expected it from the story line). Life is too short to read books that I don’t want to read.
What a fascinating discussion! I rarely DNF romances, because– as others have already mentioned– over several years of reading I’ve become increasingly selective about the books I buy or borrow via KU. I know the authors, tropes, and writing styles I like best, and when considering new-to-me authors, I use the samples, and the recommendations/comments from SBTB (and a few other trusted sources) to guide my decisions.
I’ve stopped buying/borrowing some of my favorite authors from past years because their newer books seem to repeat old plotlines & recycle old characters– so not a completist, I guess.
When I DNF, it’s typically because of writing that bores me. A particular peeve is characters who have the same conversations repeatedly in the opening chapters (reminds me of TV soap operas– a genre I like when I have time for it– where a character has essentially the same conversation with several other characters during the same week into order to stretch out the “who knows what about plot element X” storyline.
Another writing peeve that will drive me to DNF is a story told entirely in conversation/dialog with no description of anything outside of the dialog. I like to get more than a surface knowledge of the characters when I’m starting a book, and if I haven’t gained some insights and the dialog-only storytelling continues too long, I’m likely to start reading something else.
I read a lot of non-fiction for work-related reasons, and frequently find myself skipping chapters or completely DNF-ing because of dry academic writing that uses too much jargon. Even in the fields where I’m proficient, pedantic language is a turn-off!
I DNF all the time. I read for enjoyment and have only small pockets of time for it; if I’m not enjoying the book, there are a thousand books I know I like on my e-reader, plus the countless other books I’ve never read and may enjoy more.
If I had large blocks of time for relaxed and thoughtful reading, I might try harder to finish books that I recognize as well-written but aren’t grabbing me — I’d like to try Ducks, Newburyport again someday, for example. As it is, if I haven’t made it through a book by the time it has to go back to the library, then now’s not the time to read it.
Sometimes I will skip to the end, bc I’ve read a chunk and the plot doesn’t seem to be resolving.
And then if I find the dread CLIFFHANGER I will DNF AND review it “CLIFFHANGER.”
My life is too busy to be remembering to check if a sequel drops.
@PamG said, “Personally, I would love to see a post devoted to what the Bitchery rereads and why.”
I’ll second that!
Like many others, I DNF at any time. As @AnnaC said-life is too short to read a book that doesn’t interest you. I’m lucky enough to belong to 3 libraries, add in KU and Hoopla and I’m spoiled for choice. What I feel to be sloppy writing, drama that doesn’t serve the storyline, and big thing for me-violence against animals and I’m done.
As a child, teen, and young woman, I would always finish books. When I was pregnant, I was so queasy that I became very selective about what I was reading. Parenthood also had me becoming more particular as reading time became more precious.
Nowadays, I abandon books with abandon. This might be halfway through or near the end of the book, but it can be in the first chapter or even the first paragraph.
The biggest reason as to WHY is that the book is not grabbing me. And now, having read so many good books, it takes more to impress me.
I admit that I’ve often commented to my husband that I would finish ‘this book’ were it the only book in the house, but since it isn’t and the next book might be better, I don’t.
I also put books aside that give me a feeling of impending doom!
Reasons I DNF
– It doesn’t catch me. Just isn’t hooking more within the first few chapters.
– Extreme dislike of a main character. I once DNF’d a book in the second chapter. It was a dual POV and the the 2nd chapter was the hero. His inner voice as so annoying and repulsive. I feel like the author wanted me to think he was confident and ultra sexy. He wasn’t.
– Social Mediafication of the writing – I’ve DNF’d several books where it was relentless name brand dropping and every. single. character was described as looking like some celebrity. Or Characters “spoke” in internet shorthand e.g. ‘L-O-L’ and ‘B-T-Dubs’ And these were grown people.
– Not active, too passive. I need something to happen! I once DNF’d a book that was a second chance. Married couple who were broken up before the book started because the husband did something. It was very ‘thoughty’ they FMC thought lots of thoughts. The MMC thought lots of thoughts. By the time I finally DNF’d at 30% they were still monologuing about their feelings and I still didn’t know what he’d done.
– Factual inaccuracies. Much like Sara’s DC issues, if a book threads toward something I know about and get it wrong, it takes me out of the book.
– Blatant race fail.
Like Sarah, I DNF for blatant factual or historical inaccuracies. Earlier this week I DNF’d a book (an older book and not a romance) because I couldn’t face reading what turned out to be 200 pages of a faux-Victorian novel within a novel. Years ago I probably would have continued reading that book and maybe even finished it, but the number of books I DNF’d increased greatly during the pandemic because I found it so hard to concentrate and books I would normally have enjoyed didn’t hold my interest.
And like @PamG and @Kareni, I’d love a post about what the Bitchery rereads and why.
So many good reasons to DNF a book! Like many others, I DNF a lot more than I did when younger, but I did want to say that occasionally it does pay to force oneself to continue. About a year ago a good friend recommended THIS IS HAPPINESS by Niall Williams. I borrowed it from the library and told her about it, but when I started to read it was…so…slow. Beautifully written, but I considered stopping until it occurred to me that she might take it as a criticism of her taste in books. I slogged on, and it took a bit more than 50 pages, but in the end I loved it. I know I could have simply told her early on that perhaps our taste in books is different, but she was so enthusiastic and I’d admitted to checking it out, so it seemed somehow a bit too harsh to not at least finish it. If I’d finished it and still didn’t like it, I would have had to fall back on “different tastes, etc.” but I was very glad I powered through. Years ago, the same thing happened with EMPIRE FALLS by Richard Russo. That time the recommendation came from my son. Got to page 75 and stopped. Wound up taking it on a long plane flight to force myself to read more and wound up thinking it was a Very Good Book. So, even if only very rarely (and in both these cases the books were recommended by people I know and whose opinion I respect), it can pay to continue.
I don’t have a lot of DNF’s because I screen pretty extensively, usually only getting books recommended by someone whose taste I trust, or after reading a sample. But when I do DNF, it could be for glaring historical bloopers or anachronisms, or it could be an annoying main character(especially a self-deprecating low-esteem 1st person narrator). I DNF’d THE THIN WOMAN by Dorothy Cannell for fatphobia. Some books I haven’t officially DNF’d but I just can’t seem to get through them. There’s one particular historical, by an author I really like, I’ve read the first 30 or 40 pages several times. The problem is the heroine is being stalked by her abusive ex, so the angst just hits me and I put the book down, because I know some bad stuff will happen before she gets to the HEA. The only reason I keep trying is because it’s the first in a series.
Boring. If the book is boring. Or. It’s upsetting me. Viscerally. Of course I do have books I feel I need to finish (my book club, a net galley) but the above two are the reasons. Boring is far more common.
I’m a recovering English major. I *had* to finish a whole lot of plodding, pretentious self-absorbed writing in my youth. Nowadays (more than 4 decades later) I don’t want anyone to tell me what to read. Can’t even abide the idea of joining a book club! That being said, aside from favorite authors, I pick up a lot of dreck from the library, and cheap/free ebooks. Bad writing, annoying characters, and boring plots will lose me pretty fast. I’m also a mood reader, so I have a well populated dnf-might-finish-later shelf.
I DNF if:
the FMC has an overbearing family and she caves in to all their demands.
the FMC is too insecure.
the MMC starts out so mean to the FMC that nothing can redeem him.
there is too much information dumping in the beginning.
too many characters from earlier books in the series appear.
a science fiction book has too many outlandish names for people, places, and things.
I don’t care about any of the characters.
one of the. main characters is named Oliver.
I am a liberal DNFer – if it’s not grabbing me but I don’t hate it, I’ll read the end to see if it makes me want to see how they get there and if not, I’ll delete or return the book to the library or op shop.
Things I stop reading for: first person POV; series with too many books with too many characters (Mary Balogh, Grace Burrowes); the grim realities of historical oppression; toxic workplace glamourisation (Roslyn Sinclair); billionaires/cops/armed forces.
I also reread books a lot which makes for some interesting reappraisals of past favs- I recently had to stop halfway through LORD PERFECT when I was “oh noes, this entire series is colonialist nonsense!” Like I had previously loved Rupert and this time through I was thinking “wait, you keep banging on about the French but you’re all the bad guys!”
The ability to DNF (and to never start in the first place) is one of the best things about being out of school. This also drove me out of my one and only book club. So many people recommend books – and I do appreciate it – but I want to read whatI want to read without feeling obligated or guilty. I mostly stopped talking to people about what I read because I was getting a lot of comments about what I should be reading instead. I can’t imagine that this is just me – but maybe others have a higher tolerance.
when either of the characters is TSTL (too stupid to live), that’s usually the time i close the book.
Kate Rose, I’m with you. There are very few people whose book recommendations I want to hear. The best ones come from my son, whose reading tastes I helped sculpt from early on! My etes glaze over at, “Oh, you’ll love this”.
Regarding re-reads – we can absolutely do that! Stay tuned, and thank you for the enthusiastic idea!
I can’t handle manic pixie dream girl MCs. Also too much tell-not-show and brand name-dropping. I also don’t like when MCs are neurodivergent and instead of showing that, the character info-dumps about it to other characters/in first-person narrative voice. I’ve DNFed a few books like that lately.
DNF early and often! I will drop a book at the beginning and I will drop a book at 70 percent—-for nitpicky reasons, for mood reasons, for big honking errors. Life is too short to keep slogging through something that makes you go “why am I still here?”
The other day, I stopped one because the love scenes were not on par writing-wise with the rest of the book. Last night, I stopped one because two people in a theoretically high-pressure situation paused to do something very fluffy and silly. There are people trying to kill you, why are you teaching each other to knit tea cozies? (The example is not real, just similar in tone.)
DNF in a boat, DNF with a goat! I support you!
“DNF in a boat, DNF with a goat! I support you!”
I did in fact laugh aloud and startled the cat. DNF WITH A GOAT!
I am happy to bastardize Dr. Seuss to make you laugh, SB Sarah! My job here is done!
I am really bad at DNFing… I stick through way more books than I should, and then at the end I just tell myself “I wasn’t the audience, I’m sure other people loved it” (always the cheerleader).
The last book I DNF’d was a book that had such a cocky egotistical asshole as the MMC I really couldn’t see myself wanting him to fall in love, because he was *the worst*.
The last book I wasted 10 weeks on the holds list and then bailed when my hold came in was the new Julie Soto book, which bummed me out because I liked her first book, but I do play a stringed instrument (have for decades), and the blurb made my brakes screech so fast… (for reference, Gwen plays Violin, Xander plays Cello) “When Gwen is offered the role of first chair of the orchestra, something Xander has secretly coveted for years, their existing hostility goes up a notch”
How? That’s not how that works. And then I looked up 1 star reviews on goodreads to find the answer and hoo-boy am I happy I did, because the absurd nonsense that occurs and the fact that Xander is an egotistical asshole would have made me DNF it. So thanks goodreads person! You save me!
@katie I just read that book…yesterday. Some context: xander also plays violin d was a violin child prodigy, also, in the end, he’s the one getting left, not the other way around. I could go either way on julie Soto, the conflicts aren’t the ones I want, BUT the specific things you mention are only in the start. I would say it’s library / sale worthy. I had much more trouble with the idea of a cello in a rock band,
Like @Claudia: I am a recovering “completionist”. In my ‘print only’ days I honestly never considered DNF-ing anything. It’s probably having an e-reader and access to so many cheap digital books that has changed my approach – I feel like I can’t waste my precious reading time on something I’m not enjoying much, when I have so many other options waiting.
If I’m reading a new-to-me writer that is generally well reviewed, I will give them a little more leeway. But I consider it a learning experience. Recently, I’ve struggled through two books and now know that I am unlikely to read either author ever again.
The “Reading Police” are only in your head…
@ct But the Avett Brothers have a cello! (Also not rock, more like folk punk, but still :D)
I don’t have a lot of DNFs on my reading list (in 2021, there were 5 DNF out of 421 books – 4 were non-fiction re-reads that were overdue at the library and the outlier was a ‘space aliens need our women’ romance I fell asleep reading but meant to finish) but I do have a screening process that works for me (after 50+ years of refining it)
Cover …. ohhh, pretty (well, I read a lot of romances) or striking (and mysteries/suspenses) or relevant (lots of non-fiction also).
Author … oh, a favorite, that’s a plus.
What do the Amazon 1-stars say about it? Any TSTL, cliffhangers, or alphaholes … choose another book.
Read the Amazon sample…
1st person POV, multiple spelling/grammar errors (or an explanation for spelling errors! Jeez, just spellcheck it),
character dislike (wimpy FC who are always apologizing or blaming themselves are a particular dislike),
genre dislike (no billionaires, vampires, or young adult genre – that’s almost always a TSTL for me)… choose another book.
Read first 10 pages… Read 10 pages in the middle… Read the last few pages (in a physical book or a free ebook). If all three reads are a go, then it’s a book for me.
If I come across something I don’t like (as MsPym says – too many characters from previous books in the series or the middle bogging down – then I’ll skip a chapter. Or two.)
Still, if I didn’t have access to reviews and comments, then I’d probably DNF a lot more books. And I wouldn’t be reading the variety and new authors that are recommended such as Murderbot and Spoiler Alert series.
So, DNF whenever. You don’t have to read everything you start. You don’t have to start everything someone recommended. And whenever you do DNF… go back to an old favorite as a literary palate cleanser.
I think I’ll wander over to Courtney Milan’s The Heiress Effect. It’s been a while since I’v read that one.
Yes, let’s talk about re-reading.
I’ll DNF if there are no characters I want to hang out with, or if the story doesn’t hold together when I skip sex scenes, or characters are TSTL. I will keep reading a bit longer if the book was somehow difficult to acquire (like an interlibrary loan), and it would be difficult to access again.
Like many earlier commenters, I am getting better at DNFing as I get older.
I read on paper, not online, and I get my books from the library because I’m broke and move every few years. I still DNF often. One big reason is that I’m very particular about author voice– some authors just irritate me. I’ve had to learn that if I find myself constantly arguing with the author, it is time to give up and move on to another book. If I don’t like the characters, or just don’t care about them, I’ll quit. My most recent DNF was today, a steampunk book with a Japanese inspired setting. I keep making the mistake of trying steampunk and DNF at least 95% of the time because the supposed science or technology is so ridiculous. If it isn’t magic, it needs to make some kind of sense (and even magic should have some sort of internal consistency, some rules).
I’ll also DNF when authors suddenly violate/re-write the rules of the world they’ve created without a convincing explanation.
I generally try to read at least a few pages of a book before I bother checking it out, but that isn’t always enough to tell me the book won’t suit.
Sometimes when I DNF I’ll read the last chapter or last few pages to make sure the characters are OK. Often this just confirms I was wise to quit.
My criteria is if reading starts to feel more like a chore than a source of joy. I’m currently in a bit of a reading slump, and there are a lot of books that I either love the author or the premise, but know I’m not in the right headspace to enjoy. So I throw the book on my library wishlist, return the book to the library, and will return to it when I’m not in the slump.