Since I’ve had the unfortunate occurrence in the last few weeks of marking a couple of books as DNF (did not finish) I’ve been thinking about if or when to give up on a book that is not working for you. Do you have a strict or more loose page rule, or do you just go off of your gut feelings? Before I started blogging I loosely followed a 30-50 page guideline and on rare occasions didn’t finish a book, but now I read anywhere from 100-200+ pages before calling it quits and have several DNFs per year. I feel like its completely fair to put a book down after reading half or more than half of the book if it still hasn’t grabbed you or certain elements of the characters, story, plot, or world still put you off.
What about you, are you a finisher or do you occasionally stall or bail on a book? If you do stall, do you ever get back to it or if you DNF do you have any page or other rules that you follow?
There are two reasons why I stop reading books.
1) If I like the writing, but the story doesn’t seem right for the moment/mood. It is possible that I will get back to it in future.
2) If a book just doesn’t work for me – because of the writing style, characters, plot, language or any other subjective reason. Normally, I can pass judgment on such a book within 25-50 pages. I will drop it and not get ever back to it. There have been books that I DNFed within a few paragraphs.
I can usually tell after about 20 pages whether I’m in the mood for it or not, so I’ll put that book down and sometimes get back to it. There are books I put down after 25-30 as well, though if I’m really desperate to like them (they are highly recommended or they are for a book club or readalong) I will keep going until I can’t stand reading it anymore.
That’s a tough question, but now that I’ve been reading/reviewing for awhile I feel like I’m more comfortable with making the decision to stop. Usually within about 50-60 pages I have a pretty good idea that the writing or topic isn’t going to be something that will sit well with me. A few rare times I’ve held off and jumped back in at a later date, but it doesn’t usually come together for me.
I’ve decided that there are so many books out there that I’d love to read and fall in love with that it’s really not important to struggle through one I only just sort of like or possibly really detest. No guilt! Just forward motion!
Once I stall I have good intentions of getting back to the book but I usually don’t either. It’s like that bad first impression tainted it forever, you know? I completely agree, I’m never going to be able to read all the books I want to read that I don’t want to waste my time on one I’m only sort of liking or really not enjoying.
I’ve always had a hard time quitting on books, but I’m getting much more okay with it as of late. Sometimes if it’s a really quick read, I’ll push through even if I’m not enjoying it all that much, but if I’m struggling I just give up. I try to give at least 50 pages, but have stopped sooner or later. Sometimes it’s just an ‘I’m not in the mood right now’ thing, where I plan to come back, but sometimes you just have to day die. I don’t think you should force yourself to read something you aren’t enjoying, I actually want to work on quitting books I’m not liking more!
If it’s a short and quick read despite the slogging I usually try to finish, but I’ve realized more and more that it’s just not worth it to me. The little time I have for reading/blogging is just to precious. I don’t want to waste it reading books I don’t care about and that could potential bring on a reading/blogging slump.
I usually always try to finish the book no matter how much I’m disliking it because many a book’s ending will wow me, but I’m reading one now that just isn’t doing it for me and I think I’m going to quit.
I’ve learned that the cases are fewer between when the ending wows me enough to make up for the 100+ pages I was struggling through, but I know it can happen. The other day I – *cough* – looked ahead to see what was coming up. I knew it may spoil the book but it actually made me want to finish it – and I ended up enjoying the latter half more than the first. It used to be a cardinal rule for me not to look ahead but now I think I throw that out the window and do it in exceptional cases.
I used to finish every book I read (even before I started blogging) in the hopes that maybe the book would get better. The majority of the time the book would end up ultimately sucking BUT I had the knowledge that it couldn’t have gotten any better, lol.
Anyway, I used to finish books that I PLANNED on reviewing (even if I wasn’t enjoying them) since I felt like I had an obligation; especially once I realized how much work went into those books! But the longer I kept doing this, I’d feel more bogged down. This is partly why I don’t request for books anymore because I don’t want to deal with the annoyance/guilt I felt but also because….why should reading be anything but enjoyable? ESPECIALLY if you don’t have an obligation to read it? I’m really rambling when what I’m trying to say is: I don’t think it’s bad to DNF a book. It’s considerate of you to give it a page limit but if there’s no hope of it getting any better, there’s no shame in stopping. You can always get back to it if you’re interested enough or just never pick it up again. There are so many other books waiting to be read; why waste precious time with a book that isn’t so great?
Lol, that’s true. It’s so rare for a book that is sucking to redeem itself enough in the end. That’s been my experience, anyway. Aww, thanks for the support. That’s exactly how I feel about DNF but that doesn’t alleviate all of the guilt sometimes.
I really struggle with DNFing a book. I will keep going and going and going just in case it gets better soon afterwards. Once I do DNF the book, I will then feel guilty about it whenever I see it mentioned somewhere else or whenever I think of it! I have actually contemplated reborrowing books that I DNF’ed just in case it wasn’t the right time for me to read the book! Yes, I torture myself!
Ah Marg, I’m sorry, but I can relate. I’ve done that before with extremely hyped books that ALL of my blogging friends have loved – even ones I’ve finished and not liked. I feel weird everytime I see people gushing about them and then I want to reread them and hope my opinion changed!
I wrote a post about this before, but until now I don’t have a set guidelines. Except maybe that if I didn’t spend on the book, then I don’t have to finish it. Since we don’t have libraries here, most of our books are bought instead of borrowed, so most of the times, I feel like I need to read them all the way to the end for me to get my money’s worth. Of course, that would be some hours of my life I will never be able to get back if I decide that.
But for the two books I’ve decided to DNF, they’re the ones I have read about halfway and put down then just completely had no urge to continue. By then I just decided, it’s okay, just cut it and that’s it. Sometimes I go and check reviews of these books to see if there’s anything worth reading up to the end and that helps, too.
Good advice. I think I would DNF less if I had to buy most of my books, too! I’m so glad that you at least have NetGalley.
I usually give a book about 30-50 pages. If it is horribly written, though, I tend to go a few pages and put it down. I have too many books on my TBR list to waste time on one that I’ll loathe or be iffy about.
That’s a good page range. I need to go back to that.
Before, I used to finish all of the books that I started but then when the TBR grew to epic proportions, I realized that life’s too short to read books that you don’t like. I think I talked about this on the blog before. If it’s an easy read, I try to finish even if I’m not enjoying the book and then I just end up not reviewing it or giving it two stars on Goodreads.
I think it usually takes a couple of chapters for me to get really frustrated before I DNF a book. If it’s a matter of not being in the right mood for a certain book, it only takes a couple of pages for me to decide.
So true. When my TBR was relatively small pre-blogging I didn’t DNF. Blogging has made me realize that there are a plethora of good books out there that I’ll never get to so I don’t want to waste any time!
Exactly! No need to waste our time when we’re not enjoying what you’re reading, right?
I am pretty impatient and I can DNF a book after just a few pages…especially if it is in some way offensive to me… But if the book has been hyped to the skies, I will try to keep going, at least for a few chapters. But I don’t feel the least guilty by DNF’ing. There are too many wonderful books out there to read, and I can usually tell pretty fast if I am just hating a book or not in the mood for it!
Amen! I should work on eliminating the guilt, but it’s just my nature.