DNF’ing isn’t as good as you may think

This might be not so nice to read but I think that if you DNF a lot of books you need to re-evaluate your book taste. So, this might hit home for some of you. I am not saying this to sound mean but I do think it’s a conversation worth having. For the people that do not know DNF’ing a book means you do not finish the book (Did Not Finish). It’s a popular term used online, where book influencers talk about all the books they haven’t found worth their time. For people who get sent hundreds of books, this might be a good way to go, when they do not like the book they can either send it back or donate it so someone else can enjoy it. I do believe it would be more helpful if they would be mindful of what things they do not like and thus say yes too. Seeing the same author getting dnf’ed over and over feels a bit like a waste of paper to me. Not every author is for you and you can say no. However, I have no idea how things like that go as I have never got anything for free because of my limited online presence.

This brings me back to the topic I want to discuss today. I have seen people talking about DNF’ing a lot more especially in the online space and viewing this as something positive. Now I genuinely couldn’t care less how you live your book life as long as it makes you happy (e.g. if you want to fold all the corners go right ahead). I understand the idea and concept behind not finishing books. I understand that you do not want to take days out of your life reading something you are simply not enjoying. When reading becomes like a choir, it will never result in anything positive. When it becomes something you have to do instead of something you want to do, you will put yourself in a reading slump. I sympathize. Reading books for the sake of it instead of for enjoyment isn’t a way to read. What I want today is to give another perspective. I love reading and I love my bookshelves, the books that live on my shelf are the ones I want to re-read, the ones that I adored. Are all the books on the shelf a 10/10? No of course not. But I did at the very least enjoy them enough to have a fun afternoon. Because here is the thing, I hardly ever make a wrong purchase when it comes to books. I think this is where people who DNF a lot of books go wrong, the moment you buy a book is the cut-off point for most books that you would otherwise DNF. In a climate where we talk a lot about the environment and recycling, I do not see a 100 dnf’ed books as anything positive. I do not see why it would be a good thing to constantly buy the wrong books. Because if you are DNF’ing your books all the time, you made the wrong choice when you were in a bookshop. If this is you, you might wonder if it’s all your fault and it’s not. But what you can do is put in the work so that you are at least excited to read the books you do buy and do read. It will save money and the reading experience will be so much better.

Here is my philosophy if you will, the choice of taking a book home needs to be high enough that you know what you want to read. That you know your own taste so well that DNF’ing simply doesn’t happen to you. The most important thing in this? Knowing your taste. I see a lot of people online having hundreds of books, not having any clue what they have or what they even like about the books. Maybe this type of consumerism comes from book influencers getting books shipped by a dozen to their house. But if you are standing there at the bookstore don’t you want to know that the tenner you are going to spend is at least somewhat going to be worth it? A tree died for that book, it’s our duty to at the very least enjoy the time we spend with it. To me books are stories and stories are meant to be enjoyed in 2022 I wrote the following: “For me, bookshelves are not for displaying they are for stories. For telling stories and for showing stories. Bookshelves are so personal. There is no such thing as a universal bookshelf. For years to come my bookshelf might grow or they might shrink. I know one thing though when someone picks up a book from my shelf and asks if I recommend it I will know the answer.”

Do not get me wrong, it’s good to branch out but not to the detriment of your own wallet. Books are between 5,99 and 23,99. Why would you spend a median of 10 euros/pounds/dollars on a stack of paper you do not like?

There are a lot of things you can do to develop your taste, and one of those things is simply reading a lot. To do this but not buy a ton of books I recommend a library card. When I was young I had a library membership which is how I learned my taste. I am not saying everyone can be great at learning their taste fully but I do believe we can strive to be better book buyers. The thing about books is, they leave a bit of themselves with you. Someone can pick up any book and I’ll know roughly when I read how I felt about it and to some extent how I would feel about it today. Books are meant to be enjoyed, starting a book and realizing you hate it is sad. It’s been there on the shelf for you to anticipate and then you didn’t like it as much. I am always a bit cross with myself if I buy a book I later feel was not worth my time and there are things we can do to not have this occur as much.

Developing your reading taste is difficult at least at first, which is why we have libraries as I said. When I was younger I used to go to the library all the time. I would try different authors, different POVs, different genres. By going through and looking at books from a library you can learn what you love about books and what you do not love. You can learn to curate your taste. It will help you so that once you are at the bookstore you’ll know which books you will like and which ones you will not because you have seen a lot of books like it. It also does not feel half as bad to stop reading a book when you have 9 other books you have to go through before it’s Wednesday and your mother forces you to hand the books back in. I believe that fast readers are born from library deadlines or it might just be me. Another big tip is not to buy a lot of books at once, it can feel interesting and exhilarating to buy a ton of books but at some point, they are blending together, and you are in a book-buying haze. Before you know it you are talking yourself into a boxset of a series you hadn’t heard of before you stepped foot into the store. Limiting yourself to one or two books makes you really consider which one you think you would like the very best. I also think you ought to be mindful of the sales. This is something I fell victim to. After a very long reading slump, I visited England and bought 30 books, which is ridiculous. There were some absolute gems in there but there were also some books that I wasn’t sure about but bought anyway because the price was nice. Even if the price is great it doesn’t mean you have to take them home because those books are never that amazing. They are fun don’t get me wrong but they aren’t as lovely as some of the others. Most importantly I wouldn’t have picked them up here so I shouldn’t have picked them there. My final tip is easy, do not fall for the hype, last year I read a book or two that were insanely popular but that I actually didn’t want to read. I knew in my heart that those books didn’t pull me and wouldn’t be the books that I enjoy. I then gaslit myself into thinking that they must be great if everyone loves them and I gave them a chance. A great chance even if I wanted to prove myself wrong I wanted to love them, if I rated my books they would have been solid one stars. I learned to not care for the hype, if my taste and the hype align that is great but I won’t be spending any more money on a book I will not like just because the Goodreads readers decided it was golden and you shouldn’t either. Just read what you love, read the voices you want to hear from. Stay authentic to your own reading taste, your reading experience will be so much better.

If you do not know where or how to start these tips are easy to follow start with reading an author you like. Buy more of their books. It’s usually when you love a story from them you will love more from them. Then branch out to the same genre (say romance). After this, you can combine genres such as Romance (which you already love) and fantasy (which is new). Then you can see if you like a full fantasy book. This refines your taste. Remember if you are constantly buying books you are not reading then what are you buying books for?

Finally when you have DNF’ed a book because it wasn’t for you, please donate it. Either to a local little library, a book-swapping spot as they have on some train stations or your local thrift store. I personally like the thrift stores that do good with their donations and money and give back to our own community or the communities abroad that need a bit more help. But any thrift store is better than the recycling bin. If it wasn’t for you, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t for anyone. The book is made, and the pages are printed already anyway let it at least find someone who would love its content.

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