If you’ve been reading my review posts this year, you’ll have noticed that for (what seemed) like a long stretch, I was in a huge reading slump. Meaning that it seemed like I kept picking out and reading books that weren’t for me. Now, this is almost certainly due to several reasons: environmental factors, mood, and also my desire to read all the books on some random “most popular series list” I found.

And honestly… I probably should’ve DNF’d (do not finish, i.e. gave up reading) a lot of them. Before this year, I tried not to DNF. I have a Goodreads reading goal of 60 books a year. While I’m not married to it… it does still stick in my mind. So when I’ve already invested an hour-plus into a book, it’s hard for me to give up on it. And then there’s always the FOMO (fear of missing out) that MAYBE the book gets better and turns out amazing.

But, through my reading slump, I found that was *rarely* the case. So, I started trying to come up with a way to encourage myself to put down books I wasn’t enjoying. After all, there are SO many books out there, why spend time on the ones not for me?

At first I tried, “If I’ve thought about DNF’ing it twice, it’s time to DNF.” And I think this works well for when the book isn’t working for me somewhere in the middle, but honestly, I found that wasn’t strong enough. I was still reading books that didn’t HOOK me—books that didn’t make me WANT to read.

So recently, I’ve also decided 10% is my benchmark. (As a audiobook reader, this is easy to gauge, but it’d be easy for a print book too.) If at 10%, if I am not LOVING a book—if I’m not actively looking forward to reading it—then it’s not for me. It seems like a high bar, but honestly, I’m tired of reading books that aren’t a good fit. I want to get to the point where I *only* finish books I can rate at four stars or higher. Heck, if I only finish five stars books—even better!

Because there are millions of books out there, and thousands of books I know I will 5-star LOVE, so why settle for anything else?

That said, it means that I may not make my reading goal for the year, I might post fewer reviews (because I don’t review books I don’t finish), and it means that I will be starting a lot of books that I don’t end up reviewing. But that’s okay. I’m writing this to hold myself to the conviction that it’s not about the number of books you read in year, but finding the books you love.

And if you needed to hear this too, then let this be your sign. If you’re not loving that book you’re reading, put it down and move on.

Just my half a cent, but I seriously needed a change, so we’ll see how it goes!

2 thoughts on “When to DNF a book”

  1. Hi Hayley! How are you?

    Your strategy makes sense to me. I can relate to what you said. I usually try my best to not DNF. However, even though I’ve come across books that I’ve enjoyed, I’ve also read some books that I really couldn’t get into. One was very slow and I had to keep googling words to find out what they meant (I think it was more of an epic fantasy that used descriptive words that I hadn’t heard of – or only heard a few times before). Another had small text, was also too slow for me, and was confusing. I decided to DNF them and a couple of graphic novels because I was getting too annoyed and I felt the same way you did – these books did NOT make me want to read.

    So, yes, I plan to DNF books too (and, like you, I don’t review books that I don’t finish). Your benchmark of DNF at 10% is a great benchmark :). It’s understandable as well. I might go for a similar benchmark. I’ll see how things go :).

    “I’m writing this to hold myself to the conviction that it’s not about the number of books you read in year, but finding the books you love.” That’s SO true. I’ve worried too much about numerical goals when it comes to reading. I had to push myself through some other books (besides the ones I mentioned earlier) and that was miserable. I appreciate what you said here. Excellent advice!

    Have a great day, my friend! Take care :). Awesome post!

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