Happy Friday, BookishFirst Readers!
This week’s question:
Do you finish every book you start? Or do you shelve a book as DNF (did not finish)?
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To be honest, I do not finish every book that I start. If they are particularly terrible I DNF them. Life is too short to devote time to terrible writing (in my opinion) especially since there are so many great books out there waiting to be read!
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I finish most books but not every one. There are so many good books in the world, I’d rather read them then struggle through something else.
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No. I don’t. But before I put it away I ask myself is it bad or just the wrong time? Sometimes books are good but you’re just not in the mind set for them and need to return to them later. Sometimes it’s just bad or never going to be for you. I think it’s ok. Why torture yourself with works you’re reading for fun?
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I use the Nancy Pearl method. Until you are 50 you must read at least 50 pages. At 51 years, you only have to read 49 pages. By the time you are 100 you can judge a book by its cover.
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That sounds like a really interesting method. I’d never hear of it before, but it seems like a good measure!
When I was younger I absolutely had to finish…I also had no sense of time LOL. Now my reading time is short and precious and I won’t waste time with a book I’m not enjoying. However I take several things into consideration…did I read far enough in? Sometimes books get better as you go along. Maybe now isn’t the time for said book. Sometimes it isn’t that the book is bad to you and more that it’s not the right time. And sometimes I’m straight bored with a book and thats when I shelve it. And by shelve I mean I donate. lol
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It’s funny cause this the first i am hearing of this method but about 2 years ago I made a vow that after 50 pages into a book, if I’m not into it I won’t finish it. I used to waste a lot of precious time struggling through books I didn’t like just cause I felt like I had to smh.
I try to finish every book I start, but some books sound good, and then turn out to be badly written or have a certain aspect I’m not fond of. That is when I add the book to my DNF shelf, because I knew that I could not enjoy reading it anymore.
Rarely do I not finish a book. However, there are too many books out there that I want to read to waste time on a book that is very poorly edited or whose plot and characters are totally unbelievable.
I finish every book I start
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No Too many books I want to read. Give it 3 chapters to grab me. Often the ones Everyone are reading are boring… That awful Dan Brown stuff for example…
I try to finish it, but on occasion I do have a DNF. I do wait until I’m at least 33% of the way to give the book a chance.
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Heck no! There are too many great books out there to waste time on ones I don’t love. But I also don’t like to give books bad press so I do not keep a public DNF shelf on Goodreads or anywhere else. Books that I DNF may be someone else’s favorite book ever.
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It takes something really major for me to decide not to finish a book. Out of 4,000 books I’ve marked as read on GoodReads, there are only 4 on my DNF shelf. All four of those books had me really struggling with the way they were written/told the story and I finally accepted that if it took me almost a month to read 10 pages, then it’s okay to admit defeat.
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It is very rare that I do not finish a book. I feel like if I started it, I should stick with it and finish it. You never know, it may just be a slow starter.
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I try to finish every book I start, however I have DNFed books and one or two series before.
Normally, I try not to DNF, and most of the time I am not even tempted! I will sometimes push through books if I feel there is a redeeming character or theme I appreciate, and sometimes I am just too stubborn to give up. This past weekend I finally succumbed to my VERY FIRST DNF of 2020… maybe first one in 5 years. It was so boring and I did not like her writing style and I intensely disliked the main character… it was time to give up. And when I did, I grabbed a book that HOOKED me and now I might have a book hangover. I guess I am saying that sometimes it is the right decision.
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I used to feel that I should. After 50-75 pages now, if I really do not like the book or feel no connection to any of the characters, I’ll put it aside. In general, I try to be more choosy now about books before I start them.
I completely agree. I used to force myself to finish them but it felt like torture. Now I am okay with a DNF, and rate the book accordingly.
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