when to call it quits on a book // the DNF tag 

Hello Lillian! I love that Booktubers are so open about the question of DNFing! I have a tendency not so much to DNF books, but to stop reading a book for a while (sometimes even years) and then pick it up later. Somehow there are very few books I've actually DNFed, probably because I (again) somehow have a tendency to gravitate towards books I'm pretty certain I'll like and therefore finish. That said, there's a book I've been slogging through for literally a few years - I'm halfway through - and I've been giving some serious thought to possibly DNFing it. It's "Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony" by Lee Miller. It frustrates me because this should be right up my alley, but, somehow, it's just not working for me. It's very scholarly, which I appreciate, but it's full of footnotes and the minutia of the politics of Queen Elizabeth I's court. I've found nuggets of interesting tidbits in it, and I keep returning to it thinking that sonething's going to change and I'm going to love it, but every time I've returned it's been like taking a machete to try to carve a path through a rainforest. Still, I want to know Miller's solution to America's oldest unsolved mystery: The Lost Colony of Roanoke. So the jury remains out - I'm very interested in the topic of this book; I just wish it was more readable.

I used to have the same obsession over not reading cover to cover but these days I even choose to read particular chapters when it's a non-fiction book. For fiction, I feel free to let them go when they don't vibe with me. It's interesting how one's reading habits change over time. :)

Hi, Lillian! Thanks for tagging me - I'm definitely going to do this one 😊 It sounds like you and I have a lot of pretty similar opinions on DNFing overall. I'm curious - do you have a pages read goal that you track? I don't, but I see a lot of folks doing that and adding DNFs to that count but not to their total books read count, which makes sense but had never occurred to me. Also, I totally agree about Vampire D. A friend in high school loved that series and convinced me to pick it up. And it was so repulsive and infuriating!

1. Do you DNF books? Yes, and if I do, it's usually within the first few chapters (Storygraph says average progress for my DNFs is 3%). 2. If you DNF a book, do you count it towards books read that month? I only keep track on Storygraph, so I guess not (I never checked) 3. Is there a difference between DNFing a book and just putting it down for a bit? Yes. To me, DNFing is deciding to no longer engage with the book as a reader. 4. What popular books have you have DNFed? I'm not sure if any of them would be considered popular. So far, they've all been from the '80's. 5. What books do you wish you DNFed? Dark Rivers of the Heart by Dean Koontz is the only one for the year so far. I skimmed through the long tech/law sections instead. 6. What do you do with books that you DNF? I donate or take them to a free little library, along with any books I finish that I don't think I'll reread. 7. Do you choose more or less risky titles because of your stance on DNFing? For new books? No impact. I'm no longer in book-of-the-month clubs or picking up random titles at dollar-a-bag sales due to lack of physical space. Now my goal is to get my physical books down to those I enjoy enough to reread. Almost all of my new books are borrowed first.

He’ll yeah! I’ve gotten really good at making the cut if a book is not working for me! I look at all the potential books that could be my favorite life changing experiences! And I just don’t have time for ones that will not. Life is too short time is too precious to waste those hours on something you will forget. But I do still read or listen to books that aren’t great but it depends on the purpose and it depends if it slows down my momentum no- it gets the cut. But I read Crave 😅 Tracy Wolfe I am on the hunt for more twilight ish books - no it was terrible book but it was like entertaining train wreck regardless I finished it quickly and I would have always wondered if I had not finished it.

1. Do you DNF books? Yes I do. I used to force myself to finish books. But there is not enough time in this one short life to read all the books I actually am interested in, so with that in mind, there definitely isn't time to read books I'm not engaging with. 2. If you DNF a book, do you count it towards books read that month? No I don't. On one hand it's a shame because it doesn't give a realistic picture of much time I spent reading in the month, or what my reading month looked like. But there are other factors that affect that too. If I've spent a lot of time with a book that I didn't finish in that month, the "books finished" list isn't an accurate portrayal of the types of books I've been engaging with. Also, I will often read a passage in a book that reminds me of a passage in another book, so I go to the shelf and re-read that passage too, which ends up feeling like a 3-way conversation between 2 books and myself. Plus, I'll often stop to look up and read some relevant information (historical, geographical, political etc) that gives me a deeper understanding of what I'm reading. 3. Is there a difference between reading a book and just putting it down for a bit? Yes definitely. I think I have bookmarks in about 13 books at the moment. But a lot of them are things like collections of letters, diaries, biographies, history, non-fiction, anthologies, large collections of poetry. It will sometimes take a couple of years to get through those, and that's ok. 4. What popular books have you have DNF'd? I can't think of any off the top of my head. But maybe that's because I don't gravitate towards 'popular fiction' or a lot of the books trending on booktok or bookstagram. Does a series count? I DNF'd The Wheel of Time series (Robert Jordan) at book 5 or 6. That was about 20 years ago. Regarding Ian McEwan, I haven't read any of his work (I have Atonement on the shelf unread). But I can relate to a misogynistic tone being a thorn in my side throughout the book. I experience that with Murakami and Hemingway. 5. What do you do with books that you DNF? When I have the chance, I take them to my local community Book Swap, or street library book boxes. It was satisfying to finally get rid of a couple of books last year that I remember wanting to hurl out of a train window years ago. 6. Do you choose more or less risky titles because of your stance on DNF'ing? Likewise, I don't think my stance on DNF'ing really affects my buying/borrowing, because there is generally no guarantee that I'll gel with a book. I also love my library for giving me the chance to try new authors, and find new favourites, and from there I often end up buying my own physical copies. 7. Tag other booktubers! I'm not a booktuber so I can't tag. But other viewers, feel free to copy/paste these questions 🙂

Yes I do DNF books, whether it was a physical copy or audio book. As a rule of thumb I give it 50 pages (or 30 minutes in audio). I’ve tried Tolkien, Austen, Proust (to name a few) numerous times and could not get into at all. I still feel guilty, especially if people are raving about it or a classic. I highly recommend Project Gutenberg for trying out older books as a free download before committing to buying; I did this with Procopius’ Secret History, and hated it, as imo it was Fifty Shades of Grey on Steroids. As for books for being on pause, I’m finally reading Vanity Fair after 26 years, and loving it! I bought my copy after the 1998 BBC adaptation was aired.

I DNF “Agnes Grey” and “The secret history” too. Glad that I am not the only one 😅

Oh my word! I am not alone with the Secret History. I did not enjoy it at all.