Thursday Thinks: DNF

(Image from Goodreads)

There are times when you're reading, and you find yourself making excuses as to why you should put the book down. Don't deny it-- it's happened to all of us. 

Or maybe you're the kind of person that has a permanent stack of books that you're "reading" and yet you know that you'll never finish them. You get that strike of guilt in your stomach every time you pass them.

My friends... you are not alone.

We've all heard the term DNF. What does it stand for? Did Not Finish.

That's right-- there are so many of us that do this that we have our own term for it.

The big debate is whether or not it's acceptable to place a book in a DNF stack. If so, WHEN is it acceptable? How much of the book must be read before we can place it in the stack? And what are the terms of deciding not to finish it?

All of these things as personal preferences. For me, it has to be a pretty bad book to get me thinking:

My rules are this:

1.) I have to be at least halfway through a book before I can label it as a DNF

2.) I have to have a good reason (i.e. boring, too sexual, over-my-head, etc.)

3.) The cannot base my decision to DNF the book on someone else's opinion

If I'm reading a book, and the novel meets the above factors, then it's possible that I may DNF it. Though, this happens very rarely, for me, as I'm the type of person that always tries to finish the book, even if it's become a major struggle. In fact, some of the books I've thought about DNFing have turned out to be high star reads for me.

THat being said, I do have a stack of books on my shelf that I call my "Currently Reading" shelf, even though I haven't touched some of them in quite some time. About half of these books, though, I will eventually go back to finish, as I still remember where I am in each of them. The other half, like an ARC I recently sat on the stack, will not be read again, and will instead go to be used on #booksfortrade.

To me, there is no shame in DNFing a book. If you don't like it, you don't like it. No shame, but I still hate doing it. What if there's something at the end that makes everything else ten times better now that you know a certain secret? What if the ending makes the rest of the book invalid, and you end up loving the story?

I'm curious, though. What do YOU think about setting a book on a DNF shelf? WHat are YOUR terms?

Let me know in the comments!

Happily,

Stephanie