Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Tuesday Talks | Guilty When You DNF?

Tuesday Talks is a weekly discussion hosted by Janie and Janelle. We discuss bookish topics and have lots of fun doing it! You can check out the goodreads group and join us all here.

DNF-Do You Feel Guilty?
DNF stands for Did Not Finish, if you were wondering. And to be honest, there are so many books that I DNF and I rarely feel guilty. If I'm not enjoying it then I don't want to spend my time reading the book. Reading is something I do for fun, not because I have to. There are usually two reasons that I don't finish a book.
  1. I start reading and just don't like the book. This has happened so many times in the past year that I'm not sure I can keep count. Ok, maybe that's not entirely true. I could go back and figure out what they all are, but why? This happened with several that I've heard great things about. I don't feel guilty afterward, I just wonder what others see that I don't.
  2. The other main reason is more so that I'm just not in the mood for that type of book at that moment. It doesn't mean that I won't eventually pick the book up, I just am not right then. Sometimes this happens if I try to read too many books of the same genre back to back. I get burned out and just need a break. I might come back to these in the future. It just depends on how I feel.
I don't think you should ever feel bad about not finishing a book. Forcing yourself to read something you're not enjoying will do nothing for you. There is no way to read every book that I'm interested in during my lifetime. I simply will not live long enough to do so. New books come out every day and I want to read so many of them. Instead of spending my time reading novels that I don't enjoy, I move onto one that I do.

The only time I might feel marginally guilty over not finishing a book is if I've received it for review and then couldn't finish it. This is something I need to change in my review policy. I generally don't review novels, or at least rate them, if I have not finished the entire thing. Some authors want you to, others don't. So I just have to figure out my own way of doing things. I want to help authors, give them my opinion, but if I get into their novels and don't enjoy them then it's not going to help either one of us for me to continue reading it.

So the short answer is no. I don't feel guilty about not finishing books. And I don't necessarily turn people away from those books that I can't finish. If I think someone else would like it then I will still tell them about it. I'll just tell them I couldn't get into it.

What do you think about not finishing books? Do you force yourself through? Do you feel guilty when you don't finish one? Tell me in the comments what you think!

6 comments:

  1. Great discussion Courtney and I have to say I agree wholeheartedly with everything!

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  2. I agree Courtney! I do feel guilty sometimes but I know that I won't like every book I pick up so I try to get over the guilt. I love what you said about how forcing yourself to read a book you're not enjoying will do nothing for you. So true! Great TT this week.

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    1. Thanks! Yes, I used to feel more guilt over not finishing a book. Especially if it was a book lots of people told me was good. Now I just want to read stuff that I enjoy. :)

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  3. I'm actually really different. I always keep hoping that the book will get better so I usually try and finish most books. There have been a few that I just cannot get into at all and those I will definitely stop reading. But if I find myself even slightly intrigued by a book, I push through because there have been so many books where the end is fantastic. I don't like taking the risk of missing out of something I might really like haha. Great post!

    My full post: http://myfantabulousbookshelf.blogspot.com/2015/03/tuesday-talks-guilt-behind-not.html

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    1. I know what you mean. I've read some great books like that too. Somehow I can usually tell though. Even if I'm not really into it at the beginning, I can usually tell if it's something I will like down the road (most likely) or something that just isn't going to improve. Most of the ones I stop reading have more to do with the writing than with the story itself. I just can't read books that I don't at least appreciate the writing in a little bit. Thanks for commenting!

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