The Bookish Mindset

For years I’ve been in camp never DNF (did/do not finish), desperate to not waste my money by putting a book down early, or maybe just out of pure stubbornness of wanting to know if it gets better. The thought of leaving a book unread racked me with guilt.. it’s tough, right?

This year I made a promise to myself: to stop wasting precious reading time on books that miss the mark and allow myself to DNF more.

At times it’s been liberating and has definitely saved me from a slump. But sometimes the guilt comes crawling back. In one particular instance, I was about 8% into a book, of which on paper sounded like a bit of me (romance with multiple POV), but I was struggling. I took to my stories to ask for help and bookstagram delivered! It was a resounding:

“DNF it”

“That’s plenty. Kick it to the curb”

There was my answer. Easy. But what I also loved is the other advice I got too. I wanted to share that too so you could give yourself permission to DNF and not feel guilty about putting down that book.

“Life’s too short to waste on bad stories. Move along!”

“Don’t spend time doing things you don’t enjoy”

“Never too soon, if you’re not feeling it then no point suffering through it!”

“A teacher once told me it could be the first page. Five things you don’t like? Quit. Solid advice.”

“A tip I like… 100 pages minus your age. When you’re 99 you’ll be wise enough to know from the first page.”

“It’s never too early to DNF”

For me, responses like these keep the guilt at bay. I know it’s okay to not finish something that I’m just not feeling or not interested in. I also know that there’s no right way or time to not finish a book, it changes with each book.

I hope that if you’ve been in similar situations to me with a book that you can take some solace in this post, be gentle with yourself enough to put the book down and move onto something better.

So where do you stand? Are you team DNF or team power through?

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Last updated 01/11/2024