DNF as in Did Not Finish.
I was watching a Youtube video and the creator mentioned he gives all books 30% before deciding if he'll continue or not. That way he gives the author and their work a fair chance.
I personally feel like I can tell after the first few pages if a book is for me or not. On average I'll give it one chapter. If I read reviews and people say it gets better later on I may consider holding out to see for myself. Sometimes a book is good at first before hitting a slow decline. At that point I feel I might as well finish because I got that far.
Long story short, I'm curious if anyone else has any specific criteria for DNF-ing a book. Maybe you give it 15%? Three chapters? Halfway?
by sixeyedgojo
20 Comments
I’m somewhat sensitive to writing styles. I can quickly dislike how someone writes, and then the story is a turn off and i lose focus/joy in reading it. I have a lot of DNF 🙁
If I find myself rushing through a book for 50 pages because I don’t understand or care what’s going on, I dnf.
A weird pattern with nonfiction is that i just close the book 50 pages early, especially when the narrative becomes really repetitive.
I am reading “The Poisonwood Bible” for a book club and I can’t stand the father/preacher so I don’t want to keep reading. I am about 1/3 of the way through.
I don’t have specific criteria, though Idon’t often dnf. There have been a few books, not many, that I stopped within a few pages because I already don’t like the writing style. Others, I just stop when I feel like it.
When I pick up my phone instead of my book, I know the book hasn’t grabbed me. It usually takes about 30% to establish that.
Whenever I don’t enjoy it. This might be after the first paragraph or halfway through.
Back in the day before ebooks were a thing, I finished almost every book I started, but nowadays I see no reason to waste my time.
I DNF right away. I’ll just come back later and see if it connects.
A lot of my favorites books were DNF’d multiple times.
If it doesn’t grab me in the first few chapters i will usually stop. Occasionally a book (looking at you shogun) will burn me out and i will just be done with it. In the case of shogun it was like month 6 of reading it and i just didn’t look forward to reading anymore and would just skip to dialogue, i think i finally gave up with like a quarter left.
Some of the most rewarding books I’ve read are ones that are 800+ pages and took 100+ pages for me to become “under the spell” of the author.
On the other hand, I’ve DNF’d at 10 pages before due to bad writing.
No perfect % exists. It’s okay to give up whenever. Just do it for the right reasons
Each book is different, but I generally know by page 50 if the book and I are getting along. The majority of books I read are in the 300 page neighborhood. That would be about 16%, but I have quit some books at 7% and others at 30%. There is no hard and fast rule for me. When you start asking yourself if you should quit, then it’s time to quit.
I tend to DNF if it becomes super unpleasant (very graphic unneeded sex scenes which degrades women and objectifies them and are completely unrelated to the plot of the story).
I’ll dnf ant any point except 400 pages down with 100 to go? I’ll probably finish it. But if there’s still like a quarter of a book to go and I really don’t care then I’ll move on.
I probably dnf half the books I read.
I feel like I read pretty fast, I can knock out a book I’m interested in (depending on length) in a single sitting or over a few nights if I’m super into it. I can usually tell within the first few chapters if it’s going to be a slog and at this point I don’t waste my time, just move on to the next book and add that one to the NGF pile.
Not gonna finish lol.
I assess a book at 50 pages regardless of its overall length.
If you can’t entertain or otherwise engage me by 50 pages I’m probably not going to read the rest of your book.
When I’m pretty sure there is nothing in the book of interest. I’ll quit on page one if the prose seems janky.
The vast majority of books I dropped after checking them out were dropped during the ebook sample which is usually around 10% of the book. Might happen during the first pages. Books that I drop after are much more rare and it could happen at any percentage
As soon as I don’t like it. I’ve DNF’d books after reading the first page.
I don’t really make a conscious decision; I just don’t pick it up again.
I don’t “decide” to not finish a book. I just set it aside because “I’m not in the mood to read that right now, but maybe later” and then later never comes.
Every book I’ve ever not finished has had a point where I realised I wasn’t looking forward to going back to it. And he thought of reading it made me go “ugh I wish I was reading something else”. And then when I decide to DNF there’s almost a relief!