To DNF or not to DNF: Why don’t I give up on books?
If you had been following my blog for a while you might have realized that I don’t give up easily. Sure I come back here on my blog and bitch about how hard the book was to read, but I don’t usually give up on the book or as we book nerds call it DNF aka Did Not Finish.
I do wonder if that is a wrong thing to do sometimes a lot of times. I mean there are literally millions of other books in the world and why am I not reading something else that I would actually enjoy more. Well my dear fellow nerds, I am gonna tell you why.
10. I want to give it a chance or two.
I know many people who believe in giving up on books if they are not enjoying it in the first 50 pages! Oh but not me. I totally believe in second or er.. even fourth chances. I just don’t want to wonder how the book was after I quit on it. See I am just being fair.
9. I have spent way too much time on it.
I generally read fairly fast. It is only when I struggle to like a book I take longer to complete it. But I don’t want to give it up since I have already spent too much time on it. You see the conundrum- to give up or not!
8. But… they all have read it.
It is a no brainer that there is a high chance that I will pick a book that has been on the blogger buzz. Sometimes it is all about what wanting to be on the cool kids group, even if it means reading a dreadful book for a long time. It is our cruse.
7. I need to see the adaptation!
I have a weird rule when it comes to book adaptation. Books before screen. Yes, when I hear about the new movie / series that is being adapted from a book, I would want to read the book before the visual details could spoil my imagination. I want to see my own movie inside my head before I could watch the larger one. I am sure most of y’all understand what I mean!
6. But I love this author.
As any bookworm would do, I have some serious author obsessions. It goes without saying if I read a book by an author and I love it, I am gonna pick their next one too, irrespective of the reviews and rumors. And even if I don’t like it right away, I somehow believe that I will grow on to to like it. Of course I have been let down by this assumption far too many times for my own good.
5. I promised them I would review.
Of all the reasons I have stated above, only this one could be considered legitimate.
As you all know I am currently open for accepting books for review and manuscripts for beta reading. And when I do accept such books/MS, I feel obliged to read it completely before I review them. Even if I hated it all the way.
4. ‘What is wrong with me?’
Most of the books I pick up for reading or add to my never ending TBR list are from other bloggers’ recommendations. While I don’t necessarily read the blurb or review before I read a book, when I struggle through a book and I am this close to giving up, the glowing recommendations it had had received pop up in my brain. That takes me down on a spiral that ultimately leads to ‘what is wrong with me?’
Solution: Read it and read it fully you might like it.
3. I work towards a goal, people
On a similar note, I have a personal rule that I would rate, review and / or count the book towards my reading challenge only when I finish a book. It means when I DNF a book, I don’t get to rant about it or even to add it up on my yearly challenge. With the yearly reading slump I am getting onto, I can’t afford to do that, can I?
2. But it is a classic.
You all know it. Reading Lolita or the Tale of two cities is always gonna be a bumpy ride. I can’t think of reading a classic without giving it up a few times, for a short while. I somehow get back to them and finish reading them even if it is a long term project. I mean what is life without a few challenges, right? RIGHT?
1. I have given up on my life.
Let us face it. Being a book worm and freelancer writer I do not have a life outside books and my laptop. So what am I losing in reading few more hundreds of pages before I can truly say ‘I hated this book’? I have given up on my life and books have taken over it.
Do you DNF comfortably? Or do you find reasons, like me, to keep pushing yourself? Are there any other reasons that you don’t give up? Let me know the most recent book that you DNF-ed.
