So I have found in the last few years that many, many of the popular books on social media are… not my type of story. Unfortunately, because I’m on social media a lot, I was leaning into Bookstagram recommendations to fill up my to-be-read list (TBR), and it wasn’t working out great. Even books with a high Goodreads rating or on Goodreads “must read” lists just weren’t hitting for me, and it was putting me in frequent reading slumps (feeling like you don’t want to read or have to force yourself to read).
In the depths of the reading slump, I would think the problem was me and force myself to keep reading a book to the end. But then, I would find a book that I would just get SUCKED INTO and felt like devouring—like I couldn’t put it down. And I realized, it’s not me or the book, but rather a book-reader mismatch. And often, the book I found engrossing and unputdownable, wasn’t my ‘typical’ kind of book.
So I started giving myself permission to DNF books any time after the 10% mark. Even if the books were “okay,” that’s not the sensation I was looking for. I want books that hooked me with their characters and voice and world. I wanted to find books that I LOVED—that I could scream about. If I didn’t feel like I *had* to keep reading, I would put it down.
Which means, naturally, I DNF a *lot* of books. For example, I’ve DNF’d ~30 books in the last ~45 days. In that same timeframe, though, I’ve finished 4 books, 3 of which were 5-star reads for me. I don’t really see a DNF as any kind of judgment on a book except “not the right read for me at this time”, and though I put them on my DNF Goodreads shelf, I don’t give them a rating or review.
I download a ton of books on the Libby app, listen to the first 10%, and then decide, essentially, which 1 or 2 I’d like to keep reading. I think of it as browsing in a bookstore and sitting down to read the first 1-2 chapters before deciding if I want to keep reading.
Now the next natural question is: well that’s a lot of books to buy not to actually finish any of them. How do you not go broke?! And the easy answer to that is, I use the library. Which is freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Specifically, because I am an audiobook listener, I use the Libby App with my library card number. Then I can download ~20ish books at a time and sample them pretty quickly to find the ones that are right for me.
Since sampling a book is very low risk when it comes to money or time, I feel free to step outside of my normal reading zone in terms of genre to try a broad variety of things of all kinds of popularities. When I’m out of reads, I simply sort “Audiobooks” by “Latest Added” with the filter of “Available now” and download the first 20 that aren’t sequels and I haven’t sampled before.
Because honestly, I don’t care what anyone else rated the book—I want to find the ones perfect for me. And, real talk, I am extremely picky. So before I go on a road trip, I make sure my library loans are maxed out! It also makes it fun to go into the book without any preconceived notions except the title and the cover—I’m so often genuinely surprised, and it’s a super fun feeling.
So yeah, if you came here for the two easy steps, here they are:
1. Use your library to check out as many books as you can at a time across a wide spectrum of genre and popularity and heck, even audience.
2. Read the first 10% to find the ones that demand that you keep reading, and DNF the rest.
I’m sure this process won’t work for everyone, but I’ve found that I read SO MUCH MORE this way. I finished more books than ever before last year, with more books that I truly loved than before. And I’m on track to beat that record this year. Not that speed matters, but what’s really important is that I’ve managed to avoid those reading slumps and find the right books for me at the right time. Highly recommend.
Thanks for reading!
Hayley Reese Chow 