Did Not Finish, the book, that is. I’m not super good at it. Honestly, the idea of not finishing a book makes me rather sad. Sure, I have no problem listing off a bunch of books I will never give a try (e.g. Fifty Shades of Grey), but I have quite a bit of trouble putting a book down and saying “enough, I don’t like it.”
I think part of the reason for being the way I am is because I was taught by my parents to finish what you start. All though, I’m pretty sure they meant things like jobs, chores, and competitive sports. You want to be a dependable person. I’m also stubborn. I like to win things, and the idea of putting a book down before THE END seems like a loss on my part. As an author, I also want to give other authors a fair shot. I don’t want to stop reading right when they are about to reveal the whole point of the book. I’ve read some books where the beginning is not great but once one key element is revealed the rest of the book goes from zero to a hundred in two seconds.
But even all of that isn’t a good reason to keep reading some books. Every reader is different. There are going to be some books I won’t enjoy or are not written for me. Period. Nothing I can do about it. Still, I find it hard to pull the trigger and call it quits.
Another factor I’m always considering is this: if I stop reading now, doesn’t that mean all the time I invested up to this point will have been wasted? The short answer: yes. But what I need to remind myself is the longer I continue reading, the more time I’m wasting.
Now that we’re on the subject of the dreaded DNF, what are the advantages and fallouts?
PROS
I don’t waste any more of my time.
I don’t have to keep slogging through something that is not bringing me joy.
I can start a different book that I actually like or watch a movie I’ve been thinking about.
CONS
I won’t know if I missed something great.
I won’t figure out how the story ends.
If I spent money getting this book and I can’t return it, I’ve wasted my money.
So what will cause me to DNF a book? Several things, all in hard-to-qualify measurements. First off, I don’t like cursing. Sure, I’m an adult and I can handle it, but I found that I just prefer to avoid it as best as I can. For one, I have younger readers who like to read from my shelf. I don’t want to have to ban them from a huge chunk of my books. On top of that, I don’t like a character’s attitude and derogatory content that usually comes with cussing.
Similarly, I don’t like crude topics in my books. I follow most of the same reasonings for this as I do for cursing. On top of this, I’m just a little squeamish. Intense gore (if you want to lump it in here) is also not my cup of tea.
Spicy scenes are a no-go for me. I’d say I’m more picky about this than about all the other things I’ve mentioned in this list. Call me a prude, but I just don’t want to see characters sleeping around and I definitely don’t want to read about which position they were in or what scenario got them to this point.
Full disclosure here, I’m a christian. No, I’m not perfect, and yes, I do read secular books. But I have limits for what I’ll tolerate. I want to keep my thoughts and my heart as pure as possible, so that’s why when I’m choosing books, I try to stay at PG-13 or younger. (Granted, there is no such thing as a “PG-13” book, since they go by a different grading system, but I think you get the idea.)
I’m also (usually) not in the mood to cry during books. Sure, I will tear up during final battles or when the character finally achieves their goal, but I don’t want to read a book that’s been written to make me cry. I need some happy/funny/action moments mixed in.
There are also a few things that should get me to put down a book but typically don’t. If the book swings far away from my personal moral and political opinions, I’m less likely to enjoy it, but not super likely to stop reading. (The exception to this is that if I know a book has content in it that I vastly disagree with before I read it, I am extremely likely to add it to my “will not read” list.) I should also DNF books that are too slow for me, but it typically takes a lot for me to give in there as well. If I’m just not enjoying myself, I’ll usually continue reading, which is not a good motto to live by.
Not all book DNFs are the same. Sometimes I shouldn’t finish reading it ever, or sometimes it’s just not the book I could be reading right now. I’m not much of a mood reader, but I could stand to follow their lead a bit more. Another thing I am trying to work on is my to-be-read books. I’m doing pretty good this year about cutting down my TBR, but one thing I am not good at is throwing away books that I’ve had for several years but haven’t had the urge to read since I got them. This has only happened a few times, but that still means I have several books that I’m not enjoying, and I haven’t even STARTED them.
So what gets me to finally pull the trigger?
If one of the aforementioned grievances shows up in the first twenty-five pages or so, that’s enough. But that doesn’t normally happen. Typically, I’m reading the first half or three-fourths of the book and liking it well enough. It is pretty clean and meets all my standards, and then something comes out of left field that I would usually stop reading for, but now that I’m so far into the book I don’t want to give up just yet. I don’t want to give up all the time I’ve invested so far, so it’s a toss up for whether I finish it or not. I’ll usually read a little more to see if it’s just a chapter of not-so-great content or if it continues. Basically, I need to get better at throwing my hands up and the book out the door.
So what book got me thinking about writing this post? When You Finish Saving The World by Jesse Eisenberg. As a short synopsis, the main characters send their therapist voice recordings about what they are struggling with. The first third of the book is about the father. The second is about his son (who is a newborn at the beginning of the book but when we get to his recordings he’s a teenager). And the third portion of the book, I assume, is about the mother. (I didn’t make it that far.) On the surface, this is such a cool concept. I was really digging the first third. There were a few comments that weren’t my cup of tea but I was chalking it up to the author wanting these characters and their struggles to feel real.
And then I got to the POV of a teenage boy. YIKES. I’ve read many a POV of boys and men, but all the filters were taken off for this one. I went back and looked at the book description to make sure I hadn’t missed any clues that would have warned me this wasn’t the book for me, but I couldn’t find them. It was crass, crude, and just plain uncomfortable. On top of that, I was listening to it on Audible, which means I was hearing the boy (or the actor) say all the things the character says. (And the book is ENTIRELY dialog.) I threw up the surrender flag when the young teenager started describing how his “excited body” was helping him hold up the guitar he was playing for this girl he was fascinated with.
SO . . . yeah, I didn’t finish the book. And it got me thinking, why do I wait so long to decide I don’t want to read this? For the most part, reading is supposed to be about fun and fascination. As a writer, I’m always looking to learn more about my craft, but even then I need to enjoy how the book is put together. Today I’m deciding I want to do better. I will no longer be giving books endless chances. The book hooks me or it doesn’t. I like it or I don’t. THE END.
Do you DNF books? Is it easy or are you averse to the task?
See you on the next page! – S.J.
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