Long after the Twitter discourse has moved on to the latest literary nonsense (yesterday it was NFTs), I’m still thinking about whether it’s OK to DNF a book. Earlier this week, in my review of Under the Whispering Door, I revealed that I am on Team DNF. Today, I’d like to elaborate on why.
Why Do We Read Books?
There are a lot of reasons to read books, but for the most part we read because we want to get something from a book. That “thing” might be entertainment, relaxation, inspiration, or knowledge. These are all valid reasons to read. And if you’re not getting what you need or want from a book, I think you’re well within your rights to stop reading and go find another book that meets your needs.
You Don’t Have to Finish Everything You Start
Some opponents of Team DNF seem to believe that reading is an important exercise in perseverance. That you must demonstrate your maturity and mental fortitude by completing every book that you crack open, no matter how much you’re failing to mesh with it.
I disagree with this idea.
I find that life is full of plenty of opportunities to persevere. Even the best day job tends to present the occasional tedious or unpleasant task that must be slogged through. We’ve all suffered awkward dinners with extended family or our partner’s old school friends who we have nothing in common with. Simple chores like washing the dishes can be a small act of perseverance, pushing through every grimy pot and pan even though you’d rather be watching TV.
When you get down to it, most adults read for pleasure. Even if we’re reading non-fiction to learn or otherwise better ourselves, that’s tied to the pleasure we’ll feel about being a more well-rounded human being.
Why would we take one of the rare pleasurable experiences that we’re allowed to have, and turn it into one more obligation?
Reasons Why I Have DNFed Books
I read a lot, and that means I dedicate a fair amount of time in my daily life to reading books. So I tend to be somewhat forgiving of a book that has a slow start or story elements that I’m “meh” about. I’ll usually give a book a fair shake, especially if there’s a lot of buzz around and it and I want to know what everyone is talking about. But even so, there’s only so much time in the day, and only so many days in my life, so I’m not afraid to set a book down if it’s not working for me.
I spent some time thinking about it, and here are a few of the specific reasons why I have DNFed specific books. Details kept vagueish and titles omitted out of respect for the authors and fans of the books.
- Fantasy novel with overuse of “the female” in the narration, as in “the female said…”
- Enemies-to-lover style romance in which the love interest did something to the main character which was so cruel it was downright villainous.
- Dystopian sci-fi that I DNFed a good 75% of the way through when I finally got sick of how the male author handled sex scenes from a female POV.
- Fantasy romance set in a Greco-Roman style world where the love interest was a slave (this was not indicated by the book description. it was not a welcome surprise).
- Epic fantasy with a ton of animal sacrifice scenes which started to cause me to have nightmares where I had to kill my pets.
- Non-fiction biography of a dancer with overly dense academic language and too much of the author’s feelings about the dancer/her work.
- A book I was assigned to review on a blog I used to write for, where there were POV chapters from the pedophilic villain (the site owner was so apologetic, she had no idea!).
- Numerous other books that just failed to grab me for whatever reason.
It’s (Usually) Not a Judgement of Quality
Most of the time, when I DNF a book, it’s not that I think the book is objectively BAD, it’s that it’s not working for ME. Earlier this year I started reading a book by an author whose work I previously enjoyed. The first few chapters failed to grab me and then something else I wanted to read came out, so I decided to stop reading it and never went back to it. Later, my partner read the book and enjoyed it, but confirmed that it wasn’t really a book I would have loved.
Not every book is for every person. That’s OK! There are a lot of people and a lot of books in the world. I would really rather have authors write what they want to write than have them try to please everyone.
Sometimes, we just know a book isn’t for us. It’s a genre we don’t enjoy, or an author whose style has never worked for us. We don’t even start those books. Other times, a book looks like it’s for us but turns out to contain elements we don’t enjoy. When that happens, it’s OK to put it down.
It’s Not a Matter of Respect
I don’t really understand why anyone would think it’s disrespectful to an author to DNF their book. A book is not a live theatre performance. The author is not watching you read. They do not see you put the book down and leave the room.
You’ve already shown your respect for the author by buying their book (or borrowing it from the library). You respected their ideas enough to give them a chance.
It really only becomes disrespectful if you start some sort of smear campaign, or tag the author in your Tweet about not reading their book, or slide into their DMs or something ridiculous like that.
Should You Review Books You DNF?
I usually don’t review books that I DNF, especially not on sites that require a star rating alongside the review. Without actually finishing the book, I don’t feel like I can accurately review it. I have, on occasion, hate-read my way through a book I really didn’t like, just so I could feel justified in reviewing it.
I do feel that it’s appropriate to review a book that you DNFed if you got more than, say, halfway through the book and a sudden tonal change or other unexpected element pulled you right out of the book and ruined it for you. That is really valuable information for readers to have, especially if it’s something shocking and out of tune with genre expectations.
I also think it’s appropriate to review a DNFed book, even on a site with ratings, if there were issues with the writing, editing, or formatting of the book that make it impossible to read.
But if a book just isn’t for you, and you couldn’t get through more than a few chapters, I don’t think there’s much point to writing a review. Save your complaints for conversations with your bookish friends.
What Do You Think?
Are you on Team DNF or Team Persevere? No matter what team you are on, what will make you set down a book, even if only temporarily?