thoughts on DNFing a book.

Lately, I’ve found myself DNFing a fair number of books. If you don’t know, DNF means “did not finish”. I used to finish every book and would never put a book down. Once I started reading, I had to persevere and would make it to the end. But I’ve come to the conclusion that, in the words of Marie Kondo, if a book is not bringing me joy, then it’s okay to let it go. There are too many books out there to squander my time on a book that does not hold my interest.

I set a limit.
I decided that if I was reading an ebook, I would read at least 15% of the book before I gave up on it. If I am reading a hardback or paperback, I will give the book at least until page 50 to captivate me. Those are just arbitrary numbers I picked out – sometimes I read more before I put a book down, sometimes I read less. There have been a couple of times where I’ve known within the first couple chapters that a book is not for me. Once I got almost to the end of a book and only had around 50 pages left to read when I realized I didn’t care how the book ended. So I stopped reading and I have never once wondered what happened to those characters.

I recognize why a book is not working for me.
If I don’t like the storyline, I’ll put a book down. If I find a character annoying and can’t see myself reading about that person for another 200 pages, I’ll put a book down. If I don’t care, I will put a book down.

Here are some of the recent reasons why I’ve stopped reading a book:

• The plotline was “We woke up in Vegas married” which I don’t like
• I didn’t like or care about the characters
• The main characters had insta-love
• I didn’t like the way the book was written
• The book was way too much in the head of the main character and I couldn’t imagine being in her head the entire time
• I didn’t find the plot as interesting as I thought I would
• I just didn’t like the book

I admit that there is no one book that everyone likes.
It’s okay if I don’t like a book and don’t want to finish reading it. It’s okay if that book is a best-seller or the book everyone is talking about on social media. There will always be books that appeal to some people and don’t appeal to others. That doesn’t mean that a book is good or bad or that I, as a reader, am good or bad. It just means that everyone has their own opinions.

I don’t feel guilty.
I used to feel guilty for not finishing a book. I felt like if I started the book, I had to complete it. I would feel this need to commit to the author and the characters and to give a book a chance. But then I realized, I did give the book a chance. I tried the book out for however many pages I read through and if the book didn’t catch my interest, it’s no one’s fault. Maybe I’m not the target audience and that’s okay. Sometimes I’m just not in the mood to read that specific book but If I come back to it a few months later, I might be.

I have no FOMO.
The other thoughts racing through my brain are always “What if the book gets better and I stopped reading before I got to the good parts?” “Maybe the book has a slow beginning and the second half is amazing?” Sorry, but if I have to wade through a bunch of stuff that is boring and I don’t like just to get to something interesting, it’s not worth it to me. Sometimes I will skim the rest of the book to find out how it ends but that’s about all the effort I will put in.

If there is something on tv that I don’t like, I turn the channel. Similarly, I don’t watch movies I don’t like so why should I be reading books I don’t like? My time is my own and I’m not going to waste it reading a book I don’t enjoy.