The DNF, and why it’s ok

As a book blogger, I mainly only write book reviews. Today I wanted to share my thoughts on the dreaded DNF. Most people reading this know what that acronym stands for, but for the ones that don’t, it means DID NOT FINISH.

Now, I’ve only been reading since 2018 and blogging since August of 2021, so my catalog of books read isn’t close to what other bloggers might be that started reading at a younger age. I didn’t find my passion for reading until I was in my 30’s, so I got a little bit of a late start, which means that there are a lot of classics I have yet to read and may never read. Since 2018 I have read over 200 books, and have only DNF’d 2. Two doesn’t seem like much, but I’m also pretty picky on my selection of what I read which makes helps keep that number down.

My buddy David, aka BookMeanderings of FanFiAddict made a post (link here) that changed my life when it comes to DNF’ing books. There are MILLIONS of books published every year, sometimes you’re going to find something that you don’t like, and I want to tell you: IT’S OK TO NOT FINISH THAT BOOK OR SERIES!

Fellow readers, fellow bloggers, it’s ok to put down that book you’re not enjoying and pick up another one! Life is too short to waste time reading something you’re not enjoying when there are billions of books in the world just waiting to be read.

It was tough for me to DNF the series that I did, but it took me seeing someone say something similar to make me realize that while DNF is bad for the author, it’s not bad for you, the reader. With over 1000 books that are on my TBR (to be read) list, I am no longer afraid to DNF something that I’m not enjoying since I have plenty others to choose from that I might.

I hope this helps someone the way it once helped me!