So, you've picked up a new book that has been on your shelf for a couple weeks. You were excited to read it and all of your friends have been telling you amazing things about it. You're one hundred pages in and you are waiting for it to hit - the excitement. The excitement of being pulled into a new world, life, mind. But it just isn't coming. The protagonist is too whiny, the plot has been stuck in the same spot for the past thirty pages, and the main characters are suffering from a serious case of insta-love.
Do you continue? Or do you mark this novel as DNF - Did not finish?
I've heard a lot of differing opinions about this one. Some people I've talked to finish every single book they begin - love or hate - just on principle. Others will drop a book if it doesn't snatch their attention within the first twenty pages. I can see the reason for doing both things. Generally, you paid for a book one way or another whether it be by spending money or spending the time on a blog to be given a review copy from publishers (of course, you can also borrow books or win them). Either way, you did something to get that book and you don't want to waste whatever it is that you did by not finishing the book. No matter what, you are going to turn the last page.
On the other hand, reading is something that you are supposed to enjoy. You love reading and you want to have a blast every second that book is in your hand. You're not going to sit there, miserable, as you try to trudge through the hundreds of pages left. No, you're going to drop that book and pick up the new one that has been screaming your name from its spot on your book shelf. Hey, maybe you'll give the DNF book away to a follower or a friend that would appreciate it more.
Personally, I've always leaned more toward the latter. I love reading. If I could do it everyday, all day, I would. I sneak my books out at school, read when I'm in the car (though not when I'm behind the wheel, don't worry), even when I go on walks, I'll take a book or my eReader with me. But when I started my blog and began to find a wider range of books, I found some that didn't sit with me as well as others had but, because I had a blog, I felt obligated to finish all those books. This mind set did not work well with me at all. Reading was feeling more like a job than anything else. So I decided that I wasn't willing to ruin my love of reading in order to finish the books that I didn't enjoy just so I could post reviews on this blog. Since deciding that, I' have marked ten books DNF. Obviously, I enjoy most of the books I read but there are still a couple that I just couldn't stand.
Even if I do mark a book DNF, it doesn't mean I'll never come back to it. For example, I've recently marked The House of Hades by Rick Riordan DNF. I love this series and I loved the parts of the novel that I've read so far. But it's a really long book and I have other things I wanted to read. It just wasn't keeping my attention at that moment. The second I do feel like picking it back up, I'm sure I will fall back in love with it immediately.
If you guys want to see the books I have marked DNF, you can check out my goodreads shelf here.
What is your opinion of not finishing books? Do you stick with them or put them down? Let me know in the comments below!
I used to be the sort of person who would trudge through a book no matter how terrible (unless it was to the point where it made my eyes hurt). Lately, as I rarely have time to read and when I do it's usually something I was assigned in school, I've regrettably become one of the latter. But it's, like, really bad. Books I would have loved last year aren't holding my attention--anything I read lately requires more focus and determination than ever before. There are about five books I've started in the last year and haven't been able to finish (yet) and the book I'm reading now is taking me forever. I think I have reader's block or something. Sucks.
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