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Erica Robyn Reads

a horror book review blog

My DNF Policy

January 21, 2017      Erica Robyn      7 Comments

my DNF policy

Before we dive in, I need to say that even though I call this my DNF “policy,” I really don’t take it seriously at all. It’s really more of a personal guideline that I am hoping will help me stop pushing myself to read books that I don’t like.

Up until June of 2016, I had never DNFed a book. Like seriously, I was that kid in school that would read more than just the assigned chapters of a textbook just because I wanted to read the whole thing… How insane?!

I have always pushed myself to keep reading without really having a reason for it. After creating a shelf on Goodreads titled, “Books I Should Have DNFed,” and seeing how many books I had added that I was mad at myself for pushing through, I decided something really needed to change.

One of my reading goals for 2017 is to stop being so stubborn about DNFing. To help with that, I created this policy.

Let’s dive in!

My DNF Policy

1) Try to make it 25% through before calling it.

This “policy” is a very loose one because with some books, I have DNFed after only reading the first few pages. If I feel very strongly that a particular book is not for me, I will not push myself to the 25%. However, if I am debating whether or not to DNF, I will make the call at this mark so I can say that I gave the book a fair chance. However, if I am still not sure after reaching this 25% mark, I will move on to #2.

2) Check reviews when I’m debating DNFing. 

There have been numerous books that I was really not enjoying. I decided to go onto a site like Goodreads and saw a bunch of people recommending that readers stick to it, that the book will pick up. And sure enough, when I stuck to it, I ended up really enjoying the book!

However, there have also been times when I went to Goodreads and saw rants from people that pushed through, only to end up hating the book. So in those cases, I will put the book down.

3) Remember that I can always come back to it later.

Sometimes I’m just not in the right mood or mindset for a particular book that I am reading. I need to remember that this can happen! And rather than pushing through, I need to DNF. Perhaps I will add the book to a shelf on Goodreads to keep track of the books I think I would like to come back to at a later time.

A great example here is when I tried to read You by Caroline Kepnes. This was the first book that I ever DNFed. I only made it to page 83 before I had to bail. At the time, there were just so many sad and negative news stories going around that just could not handle the negativity of the book. But I may want to pick this book up at a later date to see if I feel differently about it. We’ll see!

4) Do not push through a book just because I like the cover/already took a photo of it.

I am a bit obsessed with taking photos of the books I am reading. Sometimes, I take photos before I even start the books. I recently found myself pushing through to finish The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, simply because I had already taken a photo that I loved. This book was just not holding my interest at all. So when I finally realized I was being stubborn about DNFing it because of the photo, I added this to my DNF policy.

5) Do not rate books that I didn’t finish.

I will not rating books I DNF. Instead, I will add them to my DNF shelf and add notes to the review to remind myself why I stopped reading that particular book.


Thanks for reading!

I’d love to hear your thoughts about DNFing in the comments below!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Julia @ Read and Live Well says

    January 22, 2017 at 1:29 am

    I tend to 'put a book down for now' rather than DNF, but even that very rarely happens! Last year I had to put down David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas about a third of the way through – there were just other things I wanted to be reading, but it's still on my shelf and I still want to finish it. I think I am pretty good at picking up books that I think I'm going to like!

    Reply
    • Erica Robyn says

      January 22, 2017 at 4:06 pm

      That's wonderful! I think part of the problem for me is that I rely too much on other peoples recommendations. So even if I'm not really interested in a book's description, I will still give it a try if I've heard a friend raving about it.

      Reply
  2. Paige Turner says

    January 22, 2017 at 9:25 am

    I also don't review books that I don't finish! I feel as if it isn't fair to give a review if I haven't even read the entire book. This is a great policy though, I especially relate to the 3rd one. I recently looked at the books I've reviewed on NetGalley and saw a book I never finished because I stopped at 32%. I've picked it up again and I'm at 35% now, and I think I'll stick with it this time. Great post!

    Reply
    • Erica Robyn says

      January 22, 2017 at 4:08 pm

      Thank you! Glad to hear you're giving the book another try! I hope you like it.

      Reply
  3. Heather Cilley says

    May 30, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    2017: the year both of us realize that DNFing books is not a bad thing! It's so liberating knowing that we don't HAVE to keep going if we don't want to. It almost felt like homework at times.

    Reply
    • Erica Robyn says

      May 30, 2017 at 8:44 pm

      Ha! Right?! Pushing through is so not worth it!

      Reply

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Erica Robyn of Erica Robyn Reads
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