I try to not just drop a book for any petty reason even though that's hard. I started reading a book the other day because Tiktok kept bringing it to my fyp and let me tell you I walked in there thinking it was going to be be cute and funny and wild like how it was advertised on Tiktok. Unfortunately the ML was just another morally grey, emotionally constipated asshat. I don't hate such books but I've read too many of the same kind of books with the same theme and plot for it to be worth reading anymore.
by justanotherbeing999
30 Comments
Repeating itself too much.
The last one I didn’t finish was also a tiktok rec. It was just reading a little too YA for me, so I dropped it and returned it to the library. I went and scrubbed my “to read list” of anything that’s labeled YA too. Sorry, I’m grown.
The last one I didn’t finish was just really repetitive in the prose and it made the story feel slow.
Unless you’re a checklist perfectionist, life is too short to read shit you’re not enjoying. I will DNF for any damn reason I please 😅
I started a rom com, which is a bit out of my usual wheelhouse. Mainly a fantasy reader, although I do love One Day and Normal People. I got about 10% in and realized the book just made me angry while reading because I had to suspend any rational thought about what was happening or how they ran into each other. The jokes weren’t funny.
There are too many good books out there, ones I know I’ll enjoy, to continue reading one I know I’m not enjoying. Probably good to venture out of your comfort zone occasionally too, but I had enough.
I think your reason is valid too, and I usually don’t dnf a lot of books, as some have redeeming endings, but eh life is too short
I don’t DNF on purpose I just stop reading and I’m like oh I guess I don’t like that one.
If I know reading a book is just going to be an unenjoyable slog where I have to force myself to finish it, I DNF. Reading is supposed to be fun, and at the bare minimum you’re supposed to be able to take something away from what you’ve read. If you’re just skimming the pages, hoping to get it done for the sake of finishing it, then it’s not worth it in my opinion.
In a more petty sense, if the MC’s inner voice/perspective is absolutely insufferable I drop it like a hot potato. I can enjoy unreliable narrators and bad people as the MC, but if I find you more annoying than a fly buzzing right next to my ear, I won’t be able to get invested in your story and it’s best to put the book down.
I don’t like it.
That’s it, and that’s all. I read for pleasure and for leisure. If I’m not enjoying it I’m putting it down and looking for something I do enjoy. I genuinely don’t understand the handwringing over DNFing a book that’s not to your taste. Life is short and there are more books out there than anyone can possibly read in one lifetime even if they dedicated their entire life to it. Why waste time and effort on a slog?
Basically, 3 strikes, I’m out. A strike could be a trope I don’t like or a quote that is cringy or a character that’s too annoying, etc.
The most recent book I DNF’d for a reason I can specifically articulate was Master And Commander by Patrick O’Brian due to the excessive amount of maritime jargon
Anything and everything. I’m extremely aggressive DNFer because there are more books than I can read in my lifetime so it’s just not worth shoveling something down my throat.
Don’t like the writing itself? DNF.
Stupid tropes? (There is special place in hell for misunderstanding due to lack of communication writers) DNF.
The author pulled a “Heh betcha didn’t expect this”. DNF
Characters are stupid? DNF.
The plot makes no sense? DNF.
Author explaining everything to you? DNF.
And in the end: I’m feeling bored reading it or it’s just not vibing? DNF.
I don’t go explicitly looking for a reason to stop reading but once I feel “This just ain’t it” I can backtrack as to why. I read purely for self entertainment so something like I “have” to finish book just isn’t on my priority list. Either I enjoy it or I’m not reading it.
Honestly, I *will* drop a book for ‘any petty reason’. The only person who benefits from what I read is me, so I don’t care if others think my reasons are petty. The latest two were:
*Paladin’s Grace* by T. Kingfisher, somewhere around a third of the way through. It was not a well-written, mature horror-fantasy with romantic elements (which is what it was suggested to me as). It’s neither what I was expecting to read, nor is it a genre I enjoy reading at all.
*Shogun* by James Clavell, at 74% through. I don’t care about sunk cost, and I simply didn’t want to keep reading about precious Anjin-san *suffering* through all the demure Japanese women who wanted his big white dick uwu.
The vibe of the book is off or it reads too slowly (classics not included).
when the mmc growls like wtf do you mean ‘he growled’? is he an animal? istg as soon as i see this word in a book more than 3 times i dnf it like just SHUT UP bro and the sound i imagine them making when growling😭🙏 the growls have me staring at my wall for 5 minutes quetsioning wth possessed me to even buy the book
When I realized that I do not have an obligation to the author to finish their book, they have an obligation to make me want to
Until I started engaging with Reddit and BookTube a few years ago, I didn’t even know there were people who had policies of never DNF-ing.
If I’m not enjoying a book, I don’t keep reading it (unless it’s for an obligation, or if I have some reason to believe I *will* enjoy it if I get far enough). It never occurred to me to do otherwise.
Is it not better to have started a book and not finished it than never to have tried? I think the bard himself wrote that. Seriously though, I’ll try any book, but sometimes I’m not vibing with the genre, I’m more focused on short-form reading, or like Faulkner, I come to the same conclusion that he’s unreadable. I’ve started and stopped Infinite Jest more times than I can count.
Required a sustained commitment to keeping all of the lore in order. Malazahn series. I got through 5 books and my reading slowed down, took a break from the book, came back and didn’t remember half of the terminology or roles characters occupied.
Stupid names will get me every time lol
Ridiculously graphic sex scenes and violence will cause me to DNF.
When I get board of the characters, if I loose interest in the story, when I start to hate the characters, if the story becomes such a slog fest that it feels like a chore. I don’t believe in forcing myself to finish a story if I am not loving it. Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy.
i DNF’ed wicked by gregory maguire the moment fiyero started comparing elphaba’s pubes to his wife’s. unnecessary, irrelevant, and just plain weird LMAO
no plot emerging… just some fucking prose going on and on. if I hit 20% and can figure out what the plot is, I’m out (Martyr! was incredibly well-written but one of those books where I couldn’t really figure out wtf was going on and bailed).
No like
Dnfing ffs…what are your reasons for not finishing a book?
Got bored, found the characters uninteresting, the prose sucked, and the list goes on. Anything that makes me go, “Blech, what the hell is this?”
I used to insist on powering through a book especially if I spent money on it, but now? Life’s too short. I generally will give a book 50 pages…if I find myself rolling my eyes, or it’s too dull, or just not for me by the 50 page mark I dump it in the library donation bin. Only once have I thrown in the towel before 50 pages.
Writing style. Poor writing style or at least, a style I don’t vibe with can totally kill a book for me, even if the premise appears promising. It makes me hate the book because the poor style is all I can focus on.
Superfluous writing can be a vibe killer too. I don’t need all the minute details **cough**AnneRice**cough**. Those details only need to be included if they are vital to the plot or initial world building but do it all the time? No thanks.
If I never feel like reading the thing and it just sits there.
If the book doesn’t have engaging language, I’ll drop it as early as the first paragraph, though I will usually give it a full page before I fully resign. I have abandoned Pulitzer fiction noms and winners that read”flat.”
Usually it’s just that I can’t get invested in the story. If I don’t care how it ends then I’m not going to waste time reading the whole thing to find out.