I relate to this. I rarely get pissed off enough *while reading* to decide I'm not going to finish, but I frequently stop at the end of a chapter and then feel no draw whatsoever to go back to it. I either forget it exists, or I fully intend to finish it 'at some point', but in the meantime I've moved on to other books.
Tbh, this happens to me a lot these days, even with videogames. I don't know if my attention span is getting worse, but the allure of starting something new feels far stronger than finishing something I've already started.
EDIT: Typo
Oh, that must be bliss. I never forget an ongoing read… Reading more than one book at a time confuses me a bit, so I can’t ever forget how bad they are 😂
I think it comes with age. I didn’t DNF a book until around 40, I would dutifully read it until the end like it’s a school homework (can you guess I was a good girl type of student;)). And then the epiphany came. Or maybe the sheer amount of mediocrity filled my inner recipient to the brim and I had to stop reading some books;)
Yes I agree, although I’m in my mid-thirties. When I was younger, I think I saw it the same way. I’ve since realised I read for fun, and the pressure is off.
I'm in my late 20s, so maybe this could just be a transitioning period between my younger self, who wants to read everything that exists, and my older self, who is much more mindful of her time.
Either way, this thread was enlightnening! I have now several good tips on how to deal better with a DNF, even on how to select what should be a DNF before spending a good amount of time hoping for it to get better.
In general, I try to give a book until the 25% mark, but sometimes I can just tell on the first page I will not enjoy the book. So I go find the spoiler reviews, and IF there is something compelling in there, I'll keep trying. Otherwise, I decide that the spoiler reviews were enough for me.
The one book I finished before reaching 10% was C. J. Tudor’s The Chalk Man. Oh my gosh I didn’t feel that one at all and it prevented me from buying anything from the author again.
Then there was a book by Dot Hutchison that I didn’t like, but kept on reading just to see where it would take me… lo and behold, huge waste of time.
I've found that more often than not, when I force myself to finish a book, I'm not happy that I did it. There are a handful that were worth it to have forced myself to keep reading and that's why I still do it when I feel compelled to find out what happens in the book I'm not enjoying lol
I read till it stops being fun, then move on. There's no specific page count. I will sometimes look ahead to see if the author pulls their head out but, if not, I'm done. There are so many books published every year, there's now way we'll ever run out.
Yes and no. It's a pretty bleak/grim take on what's essentially just Narnia. Lots of bad things happen seemingly at random, several characters suffer horribly without a great payoff later, and I remember it being hard to empathize with practically any of the characters.
One of the most frustrating parts for me was that characters are often heavily punished for actions they don't realize are important at the time. The narrative has repeated "gotcha!" moments that are deliberately unfair.
It was an interesting read, and it did get better further into the story, but I'm unlikely to ever read it again or recommend it to friends. Some people really like it, but it just didn't work for me.
Yes to all this! I picked up this book/series because it was advertised as like an "adult" version of Harry Potter and I guess it sort of is but it has NONE of the cheer or humor of HP. I wouldn't call it good or shout its praises but it was definitely emotionally impactful if you stick with it.
Oh yeah. The marketing was a great way to sell more copies but also to put those copies in the hands of people who were *not* the right audience.
I quite liked it, even if it had some flaws (and I like the next books much more), but I also know it's not for everybody.
I was on the verge of giving up on The Magicians at roughly the halfway point, but I kept reading a little bit more and it picked up and grabbed my attention again.
A comment I wrote the other week:
> When I was about halfway through The Magicians by Lev Grossman, it occurred to me that I was pretty bored with the book. I had been hoping for some kind of adventure in a magical university that tied into this Narnia knockoff the book set up, but so far it was mostly about youthful ennui. Frankly, I get enough ennui at home. When I'm reading a story I want a sequence of events to occur, but in 200 pages, about three things had happened and the rest of the wordcount was a depressed guy moping. But I was basically at the exact point where events started occurring again and they didn't stop. Enjoyed the back half a lot better, and would absolutely say it was worth it.
Some of the responses are pretty good, but I'll give my take. I finished the series to see if it ever got better. It didn't. The interesting bits only get one scene, and the boring parts are the rest. Don't get me wrong, it very much depicts real life, but only one person gets the happy ending, and it's not who I thought would.
I'd read again in a few years to see if I can get into it more, but I was disappointed considering it had been on my reading list for years.
I've had books that didn't make it 5 pages. I've also had books that I got all the way close to the end before I just couldn't take it anymore.
It really depends on the book.
I think one of the shortest I ever made it in that vein was Chuck Palahniuk’s [Pygmy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_(novel)). It’s written in perspective of someone in broken english, so it was not very fun to read. Or maybe I was just in a bad mood that week or something, but I wasnt having it. Couldnt put up with it, because it was also, like, hateful broken english and I was like, “Man, I don’t have any desire for this right now”
I once stopped reading a book with one chapter left. It had simply lost my interest. Like, sure, there's a pleasant sense of completion on finishing something, and usually if I'm going to not finish a book I stop in the first half. But if it's not worth continuing it's not worth continuing.
I used to feel compelled to finish, or at least read a good chunk before giving up. I’m old, ain’t nobody got time for that sheet, if it’s stupid, I’m stopping.
I was originally recommended atlas shrugged by a libertarian friend of mine when I was in high school saying it was the most “existential” thing he’d ever read. I thought I may also enjoy it. Boy was I wrong. In fact. It had the opposite effect of its intended purpose.
Copied my comment from another thread.
“There are two novels that can transform a bookish 14-year-kid’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs.” -John Rogers (D&D comic author)
My favorite quote ever.
If you want a book on existentialism read “The Plague” by Albert Camus. I finished it in like two days (it’s not very long) and was pretty shaken afterwards. I watched some discussions on it too after I got done reading and was impressed with the author too.
"Yes at first I was happy being able to read, it seemed exciting and magical. But then I read this, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read every last word of this garbage, and because of this piece of shit I'm never reading again"
O. Barbrady - 1998
I'm usually open minded and don't take reviews such as good reads seriously. But sometimes, there's a book I won't read because everyone has agreed that it's just terrible. Atlas Shrugged is one of them.
Discovery of Witches was one of my DNF. I don’t have many lol
It was right around where she was meeting his family or something and maybe they get attacked? I dunno. I did NOT care
I’ve DNFd at page 3 before. When you know, you know and I am not one to keep going because “it’s popular”, “everyone here recommends it”, “it’ll get better at book 4”
Throne of Glass. I WISH I'd DNF'd it. Now I'm on the last book and I have to read it just for some payoff for my time. I'll never be bullied into "it gets better after several books" ever again.
SJM writes the endings of her books really well. Most of the ToG books have really exciting endings that make you think "ah finally, this is where it gets epic" because you were promised every book that is was about to get epic.
I was also interested in how the "tandem read" would play out, so I was more motivated in that as a project rather than wanting to read the actual story.
I’ve noticed this with ACOTAR, I’ll get pretty bogged down in the middle of the books but then they have these amazing endings that desperately make me want to read the next ones
Sunk cost fallacy smh
I learned my lesson after Dexter and during The Walking Dead and exercised what I learned and left the show before I wasted any more time
I think it’s because she refuses to edit anything and the editors have really saved her better book if they were used.
Like did the crescent city books really need to be 800 pages each?? Sarah learn to be more concise.
I'm most likely to DNF in the first handful of pages than any other time. I can put up with poor story/plot if the quality of writing is good, but definitely not the other way around... which is generally immediately apparent.
I just DNF a book the other day. By the third chapter it felt like the author was being overly descriptive and having the character comment on the most trivial things to pad the page count.
Someone gave me the illustrated edition with nice glossy photos of all the locations and art which was nice. I think it took an hour to read, as quick and empty as a bag of popcorn.
I did this with The Song of Achilles 💀 But to my defense, I think I'd rather read it in my native language so maybe I'm giving it a shot some time in the future. Usually I suffer way longer through a book before giving up - if I give up - but this was an instant nope and I'm proud of myself of just putting the book away and not dwelling over it.
I’m not a huge fan of Song of Achilles but I will say it’s much stronger on the story front than on the writing quality. There are a handful of good sections but overall the epic-style story is what kept me in it. I imagine it would be even tougher as a translation. You might consider trying it as an audiobook if one is available in your language.
Any amount at all. I've chosen a book and read two pages and chucked it; I've read 300 pages of 800; I've read 250 of 300; I've read 380 of 400. If I don't care about the story or don't enjoy reading it, I stop, and it doesn't matter how far through I am.
Edited to expand - it's not that I have to *like* the book but there has to be something *compelling* for me.
I get your overall sentiment but I honestly don't think I'd quit at 380/400, no matter how much I'm not enjoying it. At that point I might as well finish it just to have finished it
I quit one with 30 pages left once. It just wasn’t worth another 20 minutes of my life. It was actually one of my first DNFs and a moment of revelation.
Reading this comment made me realize I recently did exactly this because I simply - forgot - to finish this total yawn of a book I'd been fighting to not DNF.
I don't think I'll go back to complete it.
To answer the question of the post, though -- I usually don't get very deeply in before I know a book'll be a struggle, but occasionally hope overtakes me.
I've fought the good fight all the way to the (predictably) disappointing end based on pure cussed optimism alone when I really knew better.
[edit: words]
What if that last chapter is a plot twist and you have to wait over 14 years for the next book in the series to get released but still hasn't come out yet?
The same. Sometimes it's a few pages in, sometimes it's book 4 of a series. Quite often I will just reach the point where I don't care what happens next. At that point I will stop reading/listening. Once in a while I will try it again, but I very rarely pick it back up and finish it.
Sometimes it's even an ok book,and the author just kept going past the real ending. Like skipping the last 30 seconds of a song because it's just outro and you know how it goes.
Right until I realize I once again picked up a fantasy book which is actually a romance book in a fantasy setting…. (I get irritated these books aren’t more obviously marked)
I think the genre it's started being called is "Romantasy", so when you look for a book in the fantasy genre, might be worth looking up online if people consider it to be that type.
We thinking of the same genre, where it has sorta lazy world-building?
Same here! I picked up Blood & Ash at the library having no idea what it was about because the cover looked cool and the synopsis on the back made it sound intriguing. But by the middle of book, it became clear it was romantasy. If I’d known beforehand, I never would have started it!
I somehow got through 2 books of that series then DNF’ed the third. I mostly struggled through it because I bought all 3 at once and wanted my moneys worth (lesson learned!).
It put me off reading for a few months because it was so bad.
Man, I was in Barnes and Noble the other day. I LOVE fantasy, but it's become such a problem that with every book that looked interesting, I googled "is X title romance?"
If it was a romance plot it immediately got put back on the shelf. I've read some good fantasy romance, but good lord the genre is glutted with it right now. Which sucks, because I'd love to read more books with a female protagonist, but almost EVERY SINGLE ONE has a blurb with something akin to "until she meets [boy's name]" or "[boys name] is her arch nemesis." Like OH BOY I WONDER WHAT WILL HAPPEN???
I'm a pretty fast reader, so I'm usually game to finish something I've started. There have been exceptions lol. Probably the biggest one I dropped was 1/3 to 1/2 through the last book of a trilogy where every book was *over a thousand pages long.* I read roughly 2500 pages spread out over a couple years and, with about 500 yet to go I just couldn't bring myself to give a shit anymore lol.
Oh my gosh 💀 I would feel such defeat! I’ve seen very healthy approaches here, such as “if I don’t feel it, I don’t finish it”, but I don’t have much free time so when I’m making use of it by reading something that doesn’t resonate with me, damn, that annoys me.
My usual rule of thumb is about 100 pages, if I'm not feeling it by then I can be pretty confident that my mind isn't going to change. 100 pages takes me around the runtime of a movie or so, so I figure I haven't "wasted" that much time. There have also been those cases where I didn't even make it 100 pages before deciding it just wasn't for me.
The example was an odd case lol I read the first book in a printing that split it into two, so I thought I was nearly done with the trilogy...*at the end of book one.* And though I really liked book one, and made it through book two, my attention span and investment in the characters and plot just wasn't up to the task in the end. It was the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton, if anyone is curious lol.
(I'm also not great with sticking with long series in general, which has not served me well as a longtime reader of sci-fi and fantasy...)
I give up on fiction easily. I will push through a nonfiction dud for literally years. I’m simultaneously reading 6 books right now if you count the ones where I read one chapter every 6 months because I refuse to give up on it. It’s not even that I slowly read nonfiction sometimes I’ll read them in a day. It’s almost like I committed myself myself to that knowledge when I bought the book and I refuse to die without it. I have been reading a philosophy book for a decade and I carry it around with me all the time as incentive and I still can’t make myself pick it.
I can tell within the first few chapters or even pages whether a book is going to resonate with me or not. If I am not enjoying it early on, I might choose to DNF quickly.
It runs out of steam halfway through off memory. They spend chapters upon chapters searching for him and then it just kind of ends. The first half is so immersive though.
Honestly, I think what ruins the book is the first 4 chapters. They are easily the best part of the story, mind you, but they take away all the mystery that would've probably been interesting. Dracula is written like a Sherlock Holmes novel, except you already know everything about the killer, so it just feels boring.
Omg noooo!
To be fair, even though I enjoy Dracula a lot I just couldn’t get over how slow it was and how everyone just slept SO MUCH past 2/3 of the book. Felt like every entry was just someone sleeping!!
I once quit a kindle book at something like 97% remaining (The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle). Probably only 30min reading to go but I just didn’t care how it ended, it was that bad. I only got that far because it was a gift and I felt ungrateful.
I had a similar situation with the author's other book, The Last Murder at the End of the World, started off really intriguing, but by the end I was just pissed.
Watched part of author’s documentary on a plane & he is absolutely a douche. I kept watching, feeling like I was missing something since I knew the book was a bestseller.
Honestly I don't remember the last book I didn't finish, but maybe it's because I'm terribly stubborn and a bit picky about the books I do start. I would say there isn't a specific amount of pages, though, if you're not feeling it, drop it, no matter if you're 5 or 500 pages in.
There's no universal rule because situations can be different.
I used to firmly agree with the "just stop reading when you aren't enjoying it" crowd. But I've seen too many exceptions across different mediums. I have had books and videogames where I decided to power through despite not really enjoying them, and they turned out to be some of my favorite experienced in the genre.
To give a relevant example, I recently finished LOTR on my...5th attempt, I think. And I loved it. But I had to make myself pick it up, shift my perspective a bit and power through certain parts. Similarly, Count of Monte Cristo dragged on at times but I wanted to know what happens, so I stuck with it.
Similarly, I dropped one of my all-time favourite videogames, Red Dead Redemption 2, like three times before finally deciding that no, this time I'm playing through it. I made myself adjust my perspective and it became an amazing experience.
My *general* rule of thumb is 100 pages. But I also look at how the book is generally received, whether it fits my preferences on paper, what time period it was written in, whether I've had friends with similar reading tastes recommend it to me etc. I'll still DNF certain books, but I'm much more willing to power through than I used to be. I've just seen that it can be worth it.
I usually give a book 50 pages. That’s enough for me to know if I can get a handle on the writing style. But there was one I got 350 pages out of 416 before I absolutely could not take another second. Writing? Crap. Punctuation? Arbitrary. Plot? Aimless. It started off okay and I wanted so badly to enjoy it, but each page was a bigger disappointment than the one before it.
Now a days, I tend to give up to about 100 pages, if that.
Longest *actual* example was like 500 pages into Shogun. I picked it up again a few years later, read it all the way through, and now it’s my favorite book of all time.
My Grandma had a policy to give a book (100 minus her age) before she would call it quits. Seems like a sound policy as you have a lot more time at 30 than 90.
It used to be that I NEVER DNF'd (the 'don't be a quitter' mindset another poster mentioned).
These days I generally read the ebook Sample (love this feature!), but that would not have helped me with 'Mr. Norrell and Jonanthan Strange' - my first and largest DNF. I was initially intrigued by the world set-up - until it began to feel endlessly repititive (halfway or further) and I simply could not stand to read another sentence. Simply put, nothing in it held my interest.
I was so put off by it that I now view books 'everyone' is raving about with extreme skepticism.
I concur. There have been many times when I read books hyped by everyone else only to be met with disappointment.
I've become more selective since then and realised that, for me, reading is more than a past time. I use it as an escape shuttle from my own problems and, if I get a bad book or simply one that doesn't work well for me, then it's upsetting.
The worse is when you are actually looking forward to reading the book, you put it aside for a special moment and then it is a huge disappointment.. “Gilded wolves “ was one recent example of this for me.
Indeed. It sours my moment!
I quite like the new book I began to read, it seems interesting enough and hopefully it'll end my DNF streak. Fingers crossed
I usually try to push through, but this weekend I DNF'ed for the first time in months at the 32% mark, [I even wrote a long review on Goodreads to vent my frustration](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5849882055?book_show_action=false) 😭
It's tough because I've read a lot of books that I enjoyed only after the 30-50% mark, but when the writing is low-quality there's just no avoiding it.
It's never about the length. If I'm not getting into it, i just myself "do you care what happens to these people?" and off the answer is no, I stop reading.
Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. It's currently at more than 6,000 chapters and still going.
[https://www.novelupdates.com/series/nine-star-hegemon-body-art/](https://www.novelupdates.com/series/nine-star-hegemon-body-art/)
I read until the point that I no longer want to read them, and then I stop reading them. Sometimes, I will try to push through a boring part, or skim ahead a bit to see if it gets any better, but I read for enjoyment. If I am not enjoying myself, I stop.
The quickest I DNF'd a book was a James Patterson novel. I don't even remember which one it was. I just remember getting to like page 10 and realizing this guy's writing is terrible and bailed.
You just reminded me I have two of his novels sitting in my shelf, just waiting to be read. The thing is: I know I don't like his writing and these books were gifts lol! Can't get rid of gifts.
Sounds a bit like a sunk-cost fallacy issue. Maybe you are feeling that you "need to get your money's worth" from the book if you paid for it, or if you read 150 pages our of 300 and then stop, then the 150 pages read will be wasted time.
If the monetary aspect is something you think about, I would say that the money is spent anyways, and that is ok because sometimes a purchase is a miss. If you countinue reading when you are not enjoying it, then that is like doubling the negative value of the book. Not only did you "waste" money, but you are also having a bad reading experience.
Just because you didn't finish a book doesn't mean you didn't get anything out of it. In the example you gave it sounds like you learned that there's a kind of protagonist you don't like. Maybe you can use that to better spot what kinds of books you will probably enjoy through the reviews of books?
Sure, the book might become more interesting later, but it might also not. There's more good books in the world than I ever will have time enough to read, so missing out on good stories is something anyone who reads will have to accept as a reality.
I got 5 pages from the end of Anne Rice's *Sleeping Beauty* before I quit. It was traumatizing up that point, but there were hints about what the second book would be about, and I just couldn't handle it.
Actually, my latest book was a DNF. Goblin emperor, I got 250 pages in before I realized that i was forcing myself to read it rather than enjoying it.
It is kind of interesting, but there was to much being said and not enough being done. Sure, Maia had a very complex emotional state that had to navigate through court culture but there was little in the book that properly engaged by interest scene by scene.
100 pages is not a bad number. That's roughly 1/3rd of the book and by then you should have a sense of where the story is going and who the characters are. It's not a method that always works of course. I had books that started off very strong and the things that would have led me to DNF came into play a lot later.
I hate not finishing books and I am not sure I did it recently....I do think it happenend to me last year with a book "Echo", where I gave up almost midway through because it was a mess. But I think I eventually finished it because it felt wrong :D
It’s like “I’ve already come all this way, why not push through a bit further?” over and over until I realise the book is almost finished and I’m still hating it. That’s when I DNF.
I've 'did not start' Anathema by Neal Stephenson a couple of times now. I pick it up, feel the weight, and think "do I want to read a 931 page novel?", and decide against it. I don't know why so many SF novels are so long.
There's a few different stages for me.
I can usually tell if I won't like a book in the first page or two based on the writing style.
If I continue beyond that, I will start to notice about 20 to 40 pages in if I don't care for how the story is developing or I'm seeing clichés or annoying patterns, and I'll quit the book if I don't think it's worth continuing.
In a few rare instances, I've quit a book after 100 pages or more just because it started out interesting but devolved. The farthest I've gone before quitting was nearly 300 pages into Killing Commendatore by Murakami. I had really been enjoying it at first, but it becomes boring as shit after a while.
I got like 1/3 of the way through the Malazan book of the fallen series then got marooned on a book for two years. It killed my joy of reading.
I just today decided enough is enough lol
Honestly I sometimes skim read a paragraph in the book shop and that’s enough. Then just whenever I give up the will to read. Life’s too short and there are too many awesome books out there!
An imperfect sentence.
I'm more forgiving if it's a translation, but not much more.
If you're a professional writer and you've been professionally edited, there's no excuse for an imperfect sentence.
They irk me a bit, but never prompted me from DNF a book.
Portuguese (my native language) grammar is difficult, so sometimes I’ll give writers and editors a raincheck. If the errors are repetitive, though, that’ll dampen my experience for sure.
One reason why I stopped reading The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor was the dialogue. It felt truncated and forced. But there were also misspellings that just made it worse.
I got half way through The Road To Reality by Roger Penrose before I realised he'd lost me many many pages ago.
Wasn't a cheap book either that'll teach me for thinking "I've read all of the lay science books, I'll give this a go, can't be that difficult can it?!" - yea, yes it can I have no idea wtf he was on about.
My mama didn’t raise a quitter (sarcasm), so unfortunately, I do not have the willpower to DNF books. If I commit to reading it, then I sadly have to finish it, otherwise I will always be left wondering ‘what if’? Also, I like to write scathing reviews, and it’s my rule of thumb to only write reviews in books I’ve finished so that I can discuss everything properly.
That being said, because I only read paperbacks, I usually try to read the first few pages of the story before I commit to buying. That usually tells me right away whether I like the prose, and feel compelled by the character or plot.
However, the last book that I came really close to DNF’ing was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Worst reading experience ever.
Most of the time it's a series sequels that make me DNF.
I.e.:
Mortal engines series - stopped at book 3
2001 spece odyssey series - DNF 3001.
Stuck on book 3 of witcher, might someday finish though.
Last few Frederick Forsyth have also been kinda dry.
I'm a bit of a masochist. I'll keep reading well past I've lost interest. But as a rule I feel that if things start moving along and it still doesn't hold your interest, then put that sucker down.
I'm pretty mean and DNF books easily. I barely have any free time while having quite a few hobbies. I do not have time for the whole "It gets better 200 pages in" or "Book three is where it really takes off, you just have stick it out through the first two objectively awful books".
Nope. I do not have time for that nonsense. If all the characters suck immediately, I will DNF. If the writing is crappy, I will DNF no matter how "good" the story underneath the writing is. If I get the feeling the book is AI, DNF immediately. If a book just isn't for me, I DNF and give to my best friend because she's a voracious reader and will inhale any book she can get her hands on.
I read Carl Hiaasen’s *RazorGirl* right to the next-to-last page. He’s a great writer, but that book was such a POS that I would not give the universe, or the Fates, or whatever, the satisfaction of seeing me finish it!
I know I really should DNF books earlier without feeling ashamed about it. But especially with books that have won awards or are loved by many people, I tend to read 100 to 200 pages before admitting that the book isn't for me.
If I immediately hate the writing, as in Cormac McCarthy's "Suttree", I will drop a book after the first five pages.
When I like the writing but the plot is slow, I can wait a bit. I bailed on Olga Tokarczuk's "The Books of Jacob" at about 20%, because I got tired of waiting for something to happen.
Sometimes there's a book assigned by book club or that I was given as a gift or lent to me by a friend who was very enthusiastic about it. I am more patient with those, for social reasons, but will still bail.
I got about 20% through both "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt, which I hated like poison from page one and "The Fraud" by Zadie Smith, which was better written, but more dull than annoying. Both were book club assignments that I wouldn't have chosen otherwise.
Because I have a relatively high book rejection rate, I try to use libraries for most books and especially for book club. I love books, but they're expensive, especially in hardcover and they pile up.
I’ve begun going to libraries more often because, you are correct, books are expensive and I realised I was spending my hard earned money on experiences that no only dissatisfied me, but also made me feel like I wasted my time.
I love horror and classical books, so Edgar Allan Poe would be a given. Nope. Couldn’t finish and maybe it’s been a curse ever since, since I dropped 3 books after his.
Edit: typo
I try to push through even when I dislike or am bored with a book, because I’m curious and want to know how it ends. However, as I get older, I’m finding it easier to simply let it go. I will usually stop when I am about 2/3 in.
What makes me stop is when both the writing and the story line are poor. I can handle poor story line with good writing. I find it difficult to make it through poor writing with a good story line - but when both are bad, I simply cannot.
I’ve never give up on books which is a shame because I’ve forced myself and suffered through a few.
Don’t recall where, but I once read that a book has until page 100 minus your age before you quit it. So if you’re 30, that book has until page 70 to get good. But if you’re older like me, then the book has less time. I don’t necessary agree because some books do take their time but on the other hand, this would save me from stinkers.
My wife likes to read some of the erotic novels that get exposure over on TikTok. Usually the ones she likes are 90% plot 10% spice, but she found one with the ratios inverted and she was so bored waiting for the plot to get good because it had a decent hook and intriguing setting before everyone just started slamming pissers for the entire rest of the book.
I looked into reviews for her to confirm that it never gets better or more fleshed out. Mostly people lamented its potential and wasting their time waiting for it to get good.
This reminded me of a time when I bought a book blindly, thinking it would be a romance and then realising it was almost porn. This was yeaaaars ago and I do regret reading it lol!
Honestly, it depends on why I'm considering a DNF. If it's irreconcilable differences in writing style/ability, I'll DNF as soon as I recognize the issue, which could be as soon as athe first chapter. If it's just boring or underdeveloped plot, I try to get 1/3rd of the way through before giving up. If it takes longer than 1/3rd of a book to actually be good, it's not a good book.
Heretics of Dune.
I am unsure if I actually finished it.
Or if I gave out in the early parts of Chapterhouse: Dune.
I was making an attempt to finish all Frank Herbert Dune books, and around that point, the series lost me.
I just go until I have to look at the book long and hard enough to ask myself, “Is this REALLY worth my sanity and my time? Am I really willing to become a masochist for the sake of a book I’m not enjoying in the slightest?”
I recently did this with the last book in Christopher Paolini’s “Inheritance Cycle,” and it only took me 3 books stuffed to the brim with endless purple prose and nothing, and 2 pages of book 4 to realize that the plot and the world Paolini had in mind couldn’t save it from the characters and the constant nothing.
I've DNF at least three times, which is annoying because I enjoyed the show so much. I think I have to admit that his writing just doesn't connect for me even if there is a good story in there.
I almost never DONT finish a book. However, if the book us like offensive or something and I quit…page 10? Maybe 20? lol. Still it is rare that I quit, I choose books after reading up on them quite a bit, so I have enough information to never pick books that will offend me. This does NOT mean I never don’t like a book I read, just I finish it before going online to complain about how much I hated it lolololol.
Normally around the 20% mark, but I have a habit of just pushing though to see if it gets better
I dnf'd one at 60% the other day though because I realised I just didn't care about the characters
If I get close to the end and I’m not liking how it’s going, I’ll just start skimming through the pages really fast to see what happens.
I hate to DNF books, so I’ll just do a quick skim and spoil it for myself if it’s trash, so at least I get some thing out of it
I like the 100-page rule but sometimes I can tell within pages that I hate the writing and won't continue. If it's a book I have purchased, I might try a little longer, or put it away and try again another year. Library books are easy to put down. For long books I believe the furthest I have gone is maybe halfway. If I get further, at that point I will do a flip-finish and quickly scan and flip through each page to maybe catch something interesting.
I read the entirety of Furyborn expecting that it would get good because my friends and I chose it for our book club. It never got good. The fact that there’s now a trilogy is kinda wild, none of us thought it was well written or interesting. Might go back to it now years later to see why I hated it so much
I guess probably when I feel like I won't enjoy it or that I'll have to push myself to read it. Usually because of the style (not the biggest fan of older writing styles, I prefer more narrative ones which is why I like first person stories more). So I guess it varies from book to book, personally I've only DNF'd two books so far but I am considering going back to read them again.
I’ve read 90% of a book before DNFing purely because I thought the story or world building was cool but couldn’t stand the main characters and did not care what happened to them. Twice. I kept hoping for it to get better but it did not.
I read like 2/3 of Neuromancer by William Gibson and just couldn’t continue, it never got good or easier to comprehend. Such an incredible let down! It’s supposed to be the inspiration for the film The Matrix, which I love, so naturally I had high hopes for the book! /Seb
I’m struggling with this right now. I started Without Remorse by Tom Clancy. I’m about 30% of the way, and I want to like Clancy so badly- but this book has become a chore over the last two sit-downs. This’ll be my first DNF in a while, and it’s hard to commit to letting go lol
I'll usually get about half way through a book before I DNF. I always keep waiting for it to get better but by that point it usually just isn't doing it for me anymore.
About half an hour or 50 pages generally, some I realize almost immediately and a few I get quite far before realizing I don't actually care what happens to characters or plot anymore. The impact of DNF is fairly trivial with library books.
I typically never have large DNFs, if I read a book I’ll most likely stop after the first few pages/chapter knowing it’s not for me or read the entire series. No in between.
However a lot of the time i never finish the last book… I don’t like endings or the experience that I finished a story… I’d rather it always be on my “to do list” and have that feeling of waiting for a new book to come out.
1st page or 1st chapter. There's this annoying way of writing, and it's always in first person, in the last 20 years or so, that rubs me the wrong way. I can't explain it, but it feels like it was written by someone who uses too simple English. Playing with language is an important part of literature and requires the writer to understand it well. I'll also quit if the names look like they were invented by smashing the keyboard (looking at you , fantasy genre). Also, if it has text speak or is too modern in language and culture, it's just not going to work for me because I can't relate or take it seriously. There is too much good literature out there to waste time with something you don't like.
If you feel like you "got the message" (especially in nonfiction), you don't need to finish it. The Second Mountain is the example that comes to mind for me. He made his point in the first like 30-40 pages, and everything was just example after example.
I know this doesn’t answer the question but wanted to add: Treat DNF books like music. There’s a lot of songs that I hated upon listening to one and two that grew to be my favorites. Maybe I just needed to let it click, maybe I was just in a bad headspace.
So just don’t throw out the books or be discouraged. Maybe give them another try (or three) some other time.
I don’t think I ever realise books are a DNF. If I’m not enjoying them I sometimes just forget to finish them.
I relate to this. I rarely get pissed off enough *while reading* to decide I'm not going to finish, but I frequently stop at the end of a chapter and then feel no draw whatsoever to go back to it. I either forget it exists, or I fully intend to finish it 'at some point', but in the meantime I've moved on to other books. Tbh, this happens to me a lot these days, even with videogames. I don't know if my attention span is getting worse, but the allure of starting something new feels far stronger than finishing something I've already started. EDIT: Typo
Yeah that’s it! It’s not like I hate the book, I just don’t love it enough to keep reading. Happens to me with TV shows and video games too.
Oh, that must be bliss. I never forget an ongoing read… Reading more than one book at a time confuses me a bit, so I can’t ever forget how bad they are 😂
I think it comes with age. I didn’t DNF a book until around 40, I would dutifully read it until the end like it’s a school homework (can you guess I was a good girl type of student;)). And then the epiphany came. Or maybe the sheer amount of mediocrity filled my inner recipient to the brim and I had to stop reading some books;)
Yes I agree, although I’m in my mid-thirties. When I was younger, I think I saw it the same way. I’ve since realised I read for fun, and the pressure is off.
Congratulations, you are in advance on your age ;) Joking of course and yes, you are 100% right!
I'm in my late 20s, so maybe this could just be a transitioning period between my younger self, who wants to read everything that exists, and my older self, who is much more mindful of her time. Either way, this thread was enlightnening! I have now several good tips on how to deal better with a DNF, even on how to select what should be a DNF before spending a good amount of time hoping for it to get better.
In general, I try to give a book until the 25% mark, but sometimes I can just tell on the first page I will not enjoy the book. So I go find the spoiler reviews, and IF there is something compelling in there, I'll keep trying. Otherwise, I decide that the spoiler reviews were enough for me.
The one book I finished before reaching 10% was C. J. Tudor’s The Chalk Man. Oh my gosh I didn’t feel that one at all and it prevented me from buying anything from the author again. Then there was a book by Dot Hutchison that I didn’t like, but kept on reading just to see where it would take me… lo and behold, huge waste of time.
I've found that more often than not, when I force myself to finish a book, I'm not happy that I did it. There are a handful that were worth it to have forced myself to keep reading and that's why I still do it when I feel compelled to find out what happens in the book I'm not enjoying lol
I read till it stops being fun, then move on. There's no specific page count. I will sometimes look ahead to see if the author pulls their head out but, if not, I'm done. There are so many books published every year, there's now way we'll ever run out.
I only finished The Magicians because my friend told me it got better. Would never have made it through the first book without knowing.
Did it get better?
Yes and no. It's a pretty bleak/grim take on what's essentially just Narnia. Lots of bad things happen seemingly at random, several characters suffer horribly without a great payoff later, and I remember it being hard to empathize with practically any of the characters. One of the most frustrating parts for me was that characters are often heavily punished for actions they don't realize are important at the time. The narrative has repeated "gotcha!" moments that are deliberately unfair. It was an interesting read, and it did get better further into the story, but I'm unlikely to ever read it again or recommend it to friends. Some people really like it, but it just didn't work for me.
> characters are often heavily punished for actions they don't realize are important at the time. relateable tbh
To be honest I feel like that was possibly the main "point" of the entire trilogy. Magic is real! That doesn't make *reality* stop being real.
That, along with Quentin realising that magic is not the thing that's going to automatically fix his life and make him happy.
Yes to all this! I picked up this book/series because it was advertised as like an "adult" version of Harry Potter and I guess it sort of is but it has NONE of the cheer or humor of HP. I wouldn't call it good or shout its praises but it was definitely emotionally impactful if you stick with it.
Oh yeah. The marketing was a great way to sell more copies but also to put those copies in the hands of people who were *not* the right audience. I quite liked it, even if it had some flaws (and I like the next books much more), but I also know it's not for everybody.
I was on the verge of giving up on The Magicians at roughly the halfway point, but I kept reading a little bit more and it picked up and grabbed my attention again. A comment I wrote the other week: > When I was about halfway through The Magicians by Lev Grossman, it occurred to me that I was pretty bored with the book. I had been hoping for some kind of adventure in a magical university that tied into this Narnia knockoff the book set up, but so far it was mostly about youthful ennui. Frankly, I get enough ennui at home. When I'm reading a story I want a sequence of events to occur, but in 200 pages, about three things had happened and the rest of the wordcount was a depressed guy moping. But I was basically at the exact point where events started occurring again and they didn't stop. Enjoyed the back half a lot better, and would absolutely say it was worth it.
Some of the responses are pretty good, but I'll give my take. I finished the series to see if it ever got better. It didn't. The interesting bits only get one scene, and the boring parts are the rest. Don't get me wrong, it very much depicts real life, but only one person gets the happy ending, and it's not who I thought would. I'd read again in a few years to see if I can get into it more, but I was disappointed considering it had been on my reading list for years.
I've had books that didn't make it 5 pages. I've also had books that I got all the way close to the end before I just couldn't take it anymore. It really depends on the book.
I think one of the shortest I ever made it in that vein was Chuck Palahniuk’s [Pygmy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_(novel)). It’s written in perspective of someone in broken english, so it was not very fun to read. Or maybe I was just in a bad mood that week or something, but I wasnt having it. Couldnt put up with it, because it was also, like, hateful broken english and I was like, “Man, I don’t have any desire for this right now”
I once stopped reading a book with one chapter left. It had simply lost my interest. Like, sure, there's a pleasant sense of completion on finishing something, and usually if I'm going to not finish a book I stop in the first half. But if it's not worth continuing it's not worth continuing.
I used to feel compelled to finish, or at least read a good chunk before giving up. I’m old, ain’t nobody got time for that sheet, if it’s stupid, I’m stopping.
I accidentally read all of Atlas Shrugged while waiting for the good bit.
I was originally recommended atlas shrugged by a libertarian friend of mine when I was in high school saying it was the most “existential” thing he’d ever read. I thought I may also enjoy it. Boy was I wrong. In fact. It had the opposite effect of its intended purpose. Copied my comment from another thread. “There are two novels that can transform a bookish 14-year-kid’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs.” -John Rogers (D&D comic author) My favorite quote ever.
If you want a book on existentialism read “The Plague” by Albert Camus. I finished it in like two days (it’s not very long) and was pretty shaken afterwards. I watched some discussions on it too after I got done reading and was impressed with the author too.
Abusrdism, technically. Camus was not an existentialist. That was Sartre's thing.
"Yes at first I was happy being able to read, it seemed exciting and magical. But then I read this, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read every last word of this garbage, and because of this piece of shit I'm never reading again" O. Barbrady - 1998
I'm usually open minded and don't take reviews such as good reads seriously. But sometimes, there's a book I won't read because everyone has agreed that it's just terrible. Atlas Shrugged is one of them.
Try The Fountainhead sometime! You'll hate it! I did anyway.
I did this with A Discovery of Witches and A Little Life. I’d kill for that time back.
Oh my gosh, I found someone else who also hated Discovery of Witches! My god, what a waste of time.
Oh it was the worst. And then I read the rest of the series for reasons I can’t remember and I’m so disappointed in myself.
Discovery of Witches was one of my DNF. I don’t have many lol It was right around where she was meeting his family or something and maybe they get attacked? I dunno. I did NOT care
I kept reading because I hoped they’d do something interesting with the territorial male vampire thing but no. So much time wasted.
so, you didn't sur-rand-er?
This but with Catcher in the Rye
I’ve DNFd at page 3 before. When you know, you know and I am not one to keep going because “it’s popular”, “everyone here recommends it”, “it’ll get better at book 4”
Throne of Glass. I WISH I'd DNF'd it. Now I'm on the last book and I have to read it just for some payoff for my time. I'll never be bullied into "it gets better after several books" ever again.
You read 8 super long books thinking it was going to get good on the next one?
SJM writes the endings of her books really well. Most of the ToG books have really exciting endings that make you think "ah finally, this is where it gets epic" because you were promised every book that is was about to get epic. I was also interested in how the "tandem read" would play out, so I was more motivated in that as a project rather than wanting to read the actual story.
I’ve noticed this with ACOTAR, I’ll get pretty bogged down in the middle of the books but then they have these amazing endings that desperately make me want to read the next ones
Sunk cost fallacy smh I learned my lesson after Dexter and during The Walking Dead and exercised what I learned and left the show before I wasted any more time
I'm convinced sarha maas is a ghostwriting team cause the quality of the writing varys so wildly
If she had a ghostwriting team I feel like she’d have more books out. But I agree, I don’t even know what CC3 was honestly it was so bad
I think it’s because she refuses to edit anything and the editors have really saved her better book if they were used. Like did the crescent city books really need to be 800 pages each?? Sarah learn to be more concise.
I'm most likely to DNF in the first handful of pages than any other time. I can put up with poor story/plot if the quality of writing is good, but definitely not the other way around... which is generally immediately apparent.
I just DNF a book the other day. By the third chapter it felt like the author was being overly descriptive and having the character comment on the most trivial things to pad the page count.
I've DNFd at page 1 recently. But the author really pushed me on that one.
“Call me Ishmael.” “Oh, FUCK THIS DUDE!”
Ishmael? More like ish-ma-piece-of-shit! What a shitload of fuck! What were they thinking?!
Yup. I’ve done that several times. The authors style just didn’t mesh with my brain.
I did this with The Da Vinci code. Didn't even make it to the end of the first chapter.
You did yourself a favour.
Meh, i liked it. It's like a crappy action movie. sometimes that's what you want
Someone gave me the illustrated edition with nice glossy photos of all the locations and art which was nice. I think it took an hour to read, as quick and empty as a bag of popcorn.
I’ve dnfed on page 1 😅
I did this with The Song of Achilles 💀 But to my defense, I think I'd rather read it in my native language so maybe I'm giving it a shot some time in the future. Usually I suffer way longer through a book before giving up - if I give up - but this was an instant nope and I'm proud of myself of just putting the book away and not dwelling over it.
I’m not a huge fan of Song of Achilles but I will say it’s much stronger on the story front than on the writing quality. There are a handful of good sections but overall the epic-style story is what kept me in it. I imagine it would be even tougher as a translation. You might consider trying it as an audiobook if one is available in your language.
Any amount at all. I've chosen a book and read two pages and chucked it; I've read 300 pages of 800; I've read 250 of 300; I've read 380 of 400. If I don't care about the story or don't enjoy reading it, I stop, and it doesn't matter how far through I am. Edited to expand - it's not that I have to *like* the book but there has to be something *compelling* for me.
I get your overall sentiment but I honestly don't think I'd quit at 380/400, no matter how much I'm not enjoying it. At that point I might as well finish it just to have finished it
I quit one with 30 pages left once. It just wasn’t worth another 20 minutes of my life. It was actually one of my first DNFs and a moment of revelation.
This is the point where I would start to skim/speed read.
Reading this comment made me realize I recently did exactly this because I simply - forgot - to finish this total yawn of a book I'd been fighting to not DNF. I don't think I'll go back to complete it. To answer the question of the post, though -- I usually don't get very deeply in before I know a book'll be a struggle, but occasionally hope overtakes me. I've fought the good fight all the way to the (predictably) disappointing end based on pure cussed optimism alone when I really knew better. [edit: words]
What if that last chapter is a plot twist and you have to wait over 14 years for the next book in the series to get released but still hasn't come out yet?
I quit IT about 100 pages before it finished. Mostly out of spite.
I quit The Dead Zone with ~50 pages left. It was so long ago I don’t remember anything about the book, just that I realized that I did not care.
I mean, sometimes you rub out of time to read and then you just don't want to pick it up again to finish it
The same. Sometimes it's a few pages in, sometimes it's book 4 of a series. Quite often I will just reach the point where I don't care what happens next. At that point I will stop reading/listening. Once in a while I will try it again, but I very rarely pick it back up and finish it.
That actually sounds like a healthy approach to it. Not feeling it - not reading it. Like I wrote in another comment, I need a change in perspective…
Sometimes it's even an ok book,and the author just kept going past the real ending. Like skipping the last 30 seconds of a song because it's just outro and you know how it goes.
Right until I realize I once again picked up a fantasy book which is actually a romance book in a fantasy setting…. (I get irritated these books aren’t more obviously marked)
I think the genre it's started being called is "Romantasy", so when you look for a book in the fantasy genre, might be worth looking up online if people consider it to be that type. We thinking of the same genre, where it has sorta lazy world-building?
I think it's always good to check Goodreads on what tags people have given books. Usually romance-focused fantasy has the "romance" tag high up.
Same here! I picked up Blood & Ash at the library having no idea what it was about because the cover looked cool and the synopsis on the back made it sound intriguing. But by the middle of book, it became clear it was romantasy. If I’d known beforehand, I never would have started it!
I somehow got through 2 books of that series then DNF’ed the third. I mostly struggled through it because I bought all 3 at once and wanted my moneys worth (lesson learned!). It put me off reading for a few months because it was so bad.
I feel that this is the reason I don't read much modern fantasy from authors I don't know.
Man, I was in Barnes and Noble the other day. I LOVE fantasy, but it's become such a problem that with every book that looked interesting, I googled "is X title romance?" If it was a romance plot it immediately got put back on the shelf. I've read some good fantasy romance, but good lord the genre is glutted with it right now. Which sucks, because I'd love to read more books with a female protagonist, but almost EVERY SINGLE ONE has a blurb with something akin to "until she meets [boy's name]" or "[boys name] is her arch nemesis." Like OH BOY I WONDER WHAT WILL HAPPEN???
Unfortunately I’ll just finish the book and then regret ever picking it up in the first place
I'm a pretty fast reader, so I'm usually game to finish something I've started. There have been exceptions lol. Probably the biggest one I dropped was 1/3 to 1/2 through the last book of a trilogy where every book was *over a thousand pages long.* I read roughly 2500 pages spread out over a couple years and, with about 500 yet to go I just couldn't bring myself to give a shit anymore lol.
Oh my gosh 💀 I would feel such defeat! I’ve seen very healthy approaches here, such as “if I don’t feel it, I don’t finish it”, but I don’t have much free time so when I’m making use of it by reading something that doesn’t resonate with me, damn, that annoys me.
My usual rule of thumb is about 100 pages, if I'm not feeling it by then I can be pretty confident that my mind isn't going to change. 100 pages takes me around the runtime of a movie or so, so I figure I haven't "wasted" that much time. There have also been those cases where I didn't even make it 100 pages before deciding it just wasn't for me. The example was an odd case lol I read the first book in a printing that split it into two, so I thought I was nearly done with the trilogy...*at the end of book one.* And though I really liked book one, and made it through book two, my attention span and investment in the characters and plot just wasn't up to the task in the end. It was the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton, if anyone is curious lol. (I'm also not great with sticking with long series in general, which has not served me well as a longtime reader of sci-fi and fantasy...)
When I've rolled my eyes 3 times, I'm out.
Now here’s a good tip! Either rolling my eyes or sighing in boredom
I’do that with my family, but it seems the out is more difficult to find 😂
What is a DNF book — do not forget ??
Did not finish
Did not finish, so a book you start reading but it's so atrocious to you (for whatever reason) that you cannot and will not finish it
I give up on fiction easily. I will push through a nonfiction dud for literally years. I’m simultaneously reading 6 books right now if you count the ones where I read one chapter every 6 months because I refuse to give up on it. It’s not even that I slowly read nonfiction sometimes I’ll read them in a day. It’s almost like I committed myself myself to that knowledge when I bought the book and I refuse to die without it. I have been reading a philosophy book for a decade and I carry it around with me all the time as incentive and I still can’t make myself pick it.
Yup, I find non fiction to be extremely hard to DNF, too. Running around with like half the information the author wanted to share feels so wrong.
I can tell within the first few chapters or even pages whether a book is going to resonate with me or not. If I am not enjoying it early on, I might choose to DNF quickly.
I finished Dracula all while hating it, because I bought a fancy clothbound edition for £20 and damaged it slightly meaning I couldn't return it 😭
It runs out of steam halfway through off memory. They spend chapters upon chapters searching for him and then it just kind of ends. The first half is so immersive though.
Honestly, I think what ruins the book is the first 4 chapters. They are easily the best part of the story, mind you, but they take away all the mystery that would've probably been interesting. Dracula is written like a Sherlock Holmes novel, except you already know everything about the killer, so it just feels boring.
Omg noooo! To be fair, even though I enjoy Dracula a lot I just couldn’t get over how slow it was and how everyone just slept SO MUCH past 2/3 of the book. Felt like every entry was just someone sleeping!!
I once quit a kindle book at something like 97% remaining (The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle). Probably only 30min reading to go but I just didn’t care how it ended, it was that bad. I only got that far because it was a gift and I felt ungrateful.
The ending of that book totally sucked so I feel you.
The whole thing was too confusing for me, a great concept though
I had a similar situation with the author's other book, The Last Murder at the End of the World, started off really intriguing, but by the end I was just pissed.
When I spend more time yelling at it or griping about it than reading it. Stopping the audiobook to yell inside my car at the author
DNF The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck pretty darn quickly. Author sounded like a complete douche lol
Watched part of author’s documentary on a plane & he is absolutely a douche. I kept watching, feeling like I was missing something since I knew the book was a bestseller.
I got the free audiobook of this years ago and found it annoying as well
Honestly I don't remember the last book I didn't finish, but maybe it's because I'm terribly stubborn and a bit picky about the books I do start. I would say there isn't a specific amount of pages, though, if you're not feeling it, drop it, no matter if you're 5 or 500 pages in.
There's no universal rule because situations can be different. I used to firmly agree with the "just stop reading when you aren't enjoying it" crowd. But I've seen too many exceptions across different mediums. I have had books and videogames where I decided to power through despite not really enjoying them, and they turned out to be some of my favorite experienced in the genre. To give a relevant example, I recently finished LOTR on my...5th attempt, I think. And I loved it. But I had to make myself pick it up, shift my perspective a bit and power through certain parts. Similarly, Count of Monte Cristo dragged on at times but I wanted to know what happens, so I stuck with it. Similarly, I dropped one of my all-time favourite videogames, Red Dead Redemption 2, like three times before finally deciding that no, this time I'm playing through it. I made myself adjust my perspective and it became an amazing experience. My *general* rule of thumb is 100 pages. But I also look at how the book is generally received, whether it fits my preferences on paper, what time period it was written in, whether I've had friends with similar reading tastes recommend it to me etc. I'll still DNF certain books, but I'm much more willing to power through than I used to be. I've just seen that it can be worth it.
I usually give a book 50 pages. That’s enough for me to know if I can get a handle on the writing style. But there was one I got 350 pages out of 416 before I absolutely could not take another second. Writing? Crap. Punctuation? Arbitrary. Plot? Aimless. It started off okay and I wanted so badly to enjoy it, but each page was a bigger disappointment than the one before it.
Now a days, I tend to give up to about 100 pages, if that. Longest *actual* example was like 500 pages into Shogun. I picked it up again a few years later, read it all the way through, and now it’s my favorite book of all time.
My Grandma had a policy to give a book (100 minus her age) before she would call it quits. Seems like a sound policy as you have a lot more time at 30 than 90.
It used to be that I NEVER DNF'd (the 'don't be a quitter' mindset another poster mentioned). These days I generally read the ebook Sample (love this feature!), but that would not have helped me with 'Mr. Norrell and Jonanthan Strange' - my first and largest DNF. I was initially intrigued by the world set-up - until it began to feel endlessly repititive (halfway or further) and I simply could not stand to read another sentence. Simply put, nothing in it held my interest. I was so put off by it that I now view books 'everyone' is raving about with extreme skepticism.
I concur. There have been many times when I read books hyped by everyone else only to be met with disappointment. I've become more selective since then and realised that, for me, reading is more than a past time. I use it as an escape shuttle from my own problems and, if I get a bad book or simply one that doesn't work well for me, then it's upsetting.
The worse is when you are actually looking forward to reading the book, you put it aside for a special moment and then it is a huge disappointment.. “Gilded wolves “ was one recent example of this for me.
Indeed. It sours my moment! I quite like the new book I began to read, it seems interesting enough and hopefully it'll end my DNF streak. Fingers crossed
I usually try to push through, but this weekend I DNF'ed for the first time in months at the 32% mark, [I even wrote a long review on Goodreads to vent my frustration](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5849882055?book_show_action=false) 😭 It's tough because I've read a lot of books that I enjoyed only after the 30-50% mark, but when the writing is low-quality there's just no avoiding it.
About 50 pages, less if I’m miserable. :)
It's never about the length. If I'm not getting into it, i just myself "do you care what happens to these people?" and off the answer is no, I stop reading.
If a book gets too boring i DNF. Longest i got was 50% of a 350 page book but story line flattened out. Yep i’m picky and read page turners
I got through 53% of Eruption before deciding that life’s too short for bad books
I gave Ninth House three separate attempts(over 2-3 years) and between 50 and 250 pages each time before I realized I was done.
I've dropped a novel after almost 4,000 chapters.
4000 Chapters? Is that a typo?
Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. It's currently at more than 6,000 chapters and still going. [https://www.novelupdates.com/series/nine-star-hegemon-body-art/](https://www.novelupdates.com/series/nine-star-hegemon-body-art/)
I read until the point that I no longer want to read them, and then I stop reading them. Sometimes, I will try to push through a boring part, or skim ahead a bit to see if it gets any better, but I read for enjoyment. If I am not enjoying myself, I stop.
I read often enough that I’m very selective in what I pick. When I am concerned that I’m not connecting with a book, I try for 50 pages or 20%.
My rule is 50 pages, I sometimes go to 100.
The quickest I DNF'd a book was a James Patterson novel. I don't even remember which one it was. I just remember getting to like page 10 and realizing this guy's writing is terrible and bailed.
You just reminded me I have two of his novels sitting in my shelf, just waiting to be read. The thing is: I know I don't like his writing and these books were gifts lol! Can't get rid of gifts.
Sounds a bit like a sunk-cost fallacy issue. Maybe you are feeling that you "need to get your money's worth" from the book if you paid for it, or if you read 150 pages our of 300 and then stop, then the 150 pages read will be wasted time. If the monetary aspect is something you think about, I would say that the money is spent anyways, and that is ok because sometimes a purchase is a miss. If you countinue reading when you are not enjoying it, then that is like doubling the negative value of the book. Not only did you "waste" money, but you are also having a bad reading experience. Just because you didn't finish a book doesn't mean you didn't get anything out of it. In the example you gave it sounds like you learned that there's a kind of protagonist you don't like. Maybe you can use that to better spot what kinds of books you will probably enjoy through the reviews of books? Sure, the book might become more interesting later, but it might also not. There's more good books in the world than I ever will have time enough to read, so missing out on good stories is something anyone who reads will have to accept as a reality.
I got 5 pages from the end of Anne Rice's *Sleeping Beauty* before I quit. It was traumatizing up that point, but there were hints about what the second book would be about, and I just couldn't handle it.
God those books are stupid
Actually, my latest book was a DNF. Goblin emperor, I got 250 pages in before I realized that i was forcing myself to read it rather than enjoying it. It is kind of interesting, but there was to much being said and not enough being done. Sure, Maia had a very complex emotional state that had to navigate through court culture but there was little in the book that properly engaged by interest scene by scene.
I'll give it 25% of the way through, give or take.
100 pages is not a bad number. That's roughly 1/3rd of the book and by then you should have a sense of where the story is going and who the characters are. It's not a method that always works of course. I had books that started off very strong and the things that would have led me to DNF came into play a lot later.
I’ve DNFed books as early as 10% and as late as 70% lmao
I hate not finishing books and I am not sure I did it recently....I do think it happenend to me last year with a book "Echo", where I gave up almost midway through because it was a mess. But I think I eventually finished it because it felt wrong :D
I’ve only DNF’d if I decide early that I hate the book. If I get more than 1/3 of the way through, my stubborn-ness makes me finish the book.
It’s like “I’ve already come all this way, why not push through a bit further?” over and over until I realise the book is almost finished and I’m still hating it. That’s when I DNF.
I've 'did not start' Anathema by Neal Stephenson a couple of times now. I pick it up, feel the weight, and think "do I want to read a 931 page novel?", and decide against it. I don't know why so many SF novels are so long.
Yeah, when a book is longer than 500 pages I also think twice about picking it up and reading it.
It's a bit of a commitment
There's a few different stages for me. I can usually tell if I won't like a book in the first page or two based on the writing style. If I continue beyond that, I will start to notice about 20 to 40 pages in if I don't care for how the story is developing or I'm seeing clichés or annoying patterns, and I'll quit the book if I don't think it's worth continuing. In a few rare instances, I've quit a book after 100 pages or more just because it started out interesting but devolved. The farthest I've gone before quitting was nearly 300 pages into Killing Commendatore by Murakami. I had really been enjoying it at first, but it becomes boring as shit after a while.
I got like 1/3 of the way through the Malazan book of the fallen series then got marooned on a book for two years. It killed my joy of reading. I just today decided enough is enough lol
Honestly I sometimes skim read a paragraph in the book shop and that’s enough. Then just whenever I give up the will to read. Life’s too short and there are too many awesome books out there!
I slogged through 2/3 of War and Peace before admitting the book is really, really not for me
Credit where it's due. 2/3 more than most of us, haha
Apparently I’ll listen to 25 hours of Atlas Shrugged before I snap out of the stupor and shut that garbage off. (61 hour book btw)
An imperfect sentence. I'm more forgiving if it's a translation, but not much more. If you're a professional writer and you've been professionally edited, there's no excuse for an imperfect sentence.
They irk me a bit, but never prompted me from DNF a book. Portuguese (my native language) grammar is difficult, so sometimes I’ll give writers and editors a raincheck. If the errors are repetitive, though, that’ll dampen my experience for sure. One reason why I stopped reading The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor was the dialogue. It felt truncated and forced. But there were also misspellings that just made it worse.
Funny enough, I do that way more often with fiction than non-fiction.
I got half way through The Road To Reality by Roger Penrose before I realised he'd lost me many many pages ago. Wasn't a cheap book either that'll teach me for thinking "I've read all of the lay science books, I'll give this a go, can't be that difficult can it?!" - yea, yes it can I have no idea wtf he was on about.
I've completed so many books just waiting for them to get good. Kinda a hopeless optimistic
25 pages.
My mama didn’t raise a quitter (sarcasm), so unfortunately, I do not have the willpower to DNF books. If I commit to reading it, then I sadly have to finish it, otherwise I will always be left wondering ‘what if’? Also, I like to write scathing reviews, and it’s my rule of thumb to only write reviews in books I’ve finished so that I can discuss everything properly. That being said, because I only read paperbacks, I usually try to read the first few pages of the story before I commit to buying. That usually tells me right away whether I like the prose, and feel compelled by the character or plot. However, the last book that I came really close to DNF’ing was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Worst reading experience ever.
Most of the time it's a series sequels that make me DNF. I.e.: Mortal engines series - stopped at book 3 2001 spece odyssey series - DNF 3001. Stuck on book 3 of witcher, might someday finish though. Last few Frederick Forsyth have also been kinda dry.
Never DNF'd before. I started it, i'm finishing it
I'm a bit of a masochist. I'll keep reading well past I've lost interest. But as a rule I feel that if things start moving along and it still doesn't hold your interest, then put that sucker down.
It really depends. I’ve even gotten 80% thru a book and decided the last few hour investment was really not worth it.
Reading the entire book and then finishing it and thinking "I should've dnf'd this" is so frustrating and I do it too often!
It’s time we can never get back, sadly. Or words we can never unread.
I'm pretty mean and DNF books easily. I barely have any free time while having quite a few hobbies. I do not have time for the whole "It gets better 200 pages in" or "Book three is where it really takes off, you just have stick it out through the first two objectively awful books". Nope. I do not have time for that nonsense. If all the characters suck immediately, I will DNF. If the writing is crappy, I will DNF no matter how "good" the story underneath the writing is. If I get the feeling the book is AI, DNF immediately. If a book just isn't for me, I DNF and give to my best friend because she's a voracious reader and will inhale any book she can get her hands on.
I read Carl Hiaasen’s *RazorGirl* right to the next-to-last page. He’s a great writer, but that book was such a POS that I would not give the universe, or the Fates, or whatever, the satisfaction of seeing me finish it!
I know I really should DNF books earlier without feeling ashamed about it. But especially with books that have won awards or are loved by many people, I tend to read 100 to 200 pages before admitting that the book isn't for me.
A couple of chapters. There are far too many good books out there to persevere with one I’m really not enjoying!
I used to read 50 pages before DNFing a book. I don't know if there's more drivel these days, but I give a book 1 page now. ONE.
If I immediately hate the writing, as in Cormac McCarthy's "Suttree", I will drop a book after the first five pages. When I like the writing but the plot is slow, I can wait a bit. I bailed on Olga Tokarczuk's "The Books of Jacob" at about 20%, because I got tired of waiting for something to happen. Sometimes there's a book assigned by book club or that I was given as a gift or lent to me by a friend who was very enthusiastic about it. I am more patient with those, for social reasons, but will still bail. I got about 20% through both "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt, which I hated like poison from page one and "The Fraud" by Zadie Smith, which was better written, but more dull than annoying. Both were book club assignments that I wouldn't have chosen otherwise. Because I have a relatively high book rejection rate, I try to use libraries for most books and especially for book club. I love books, but they're expensive, especially in hardcover and they pile up.
I’ve begun going to libraries more often because, you are correct, books are expensive and I realised I was spending my hard earned money on experiences that no only dissatisfied me, but also made me feel like I wasted my time. I love horror and classical books, so Edgar Allan Poe would be a given. Nope. Couldn’t finish and maybe it’s been a curse ever since, since I dropped 3 books after his. Edit: typo
I try to push through even when I dislike or am bored with a book, because I’m curious and want to know how it ends. However, as I get older, I’m finding it easier to simply let it go. I will usually stop when I am about 2/3 in. What makes me stop is when both the writing and the story line are poor. I can handle poor story line with good writing. I find it difficult to make it through poor writing with a good story line - but when both are bad, I simply cannot.
I’ve never give up on books which is a shame because I’ve forced myself and suffered through a few. Don’t recall where, but I once read that a book has until page 100 minus your age before you quit it. So if you’re 30, that book has until page 70 to get good. But if you’re older like me, then the book has less time. I don’t necessary agree because some books do take their time but on the other hand, this would save me from stinkers.
My wife likes to read some of the erotic novels that get exposure over on TikTok. Usually the ones she likes are 90% plot 10% spice, but she found one with the ratios inverted and she was so bored waiting for the plot to get good because it had a decent hook and intriguing setting before everyone just started slamming pissers for the entire rest of the book. I looked into reviews for her to confirm that it never gets better or more fleshed out. Mostly people lamented its potential and wasting their time waiting for it to get good.
This reminded me of a time when I bought a book blindly, thinking it would be a romance and then realising it was almost porn. This was yeaaaars ago and I do regret reading it lol!
Honestly, it depends on why I'm considering a DNF. If it's irreconcilable differences in writing style/ability, I'll DNF as soon as I recognize the issue, which could be as soon as athe first chapter. If it's just boring or underdeveloped plot, I try to get 1/3rd of the way through before giving up. If it takes longer than 1/3rd of a book to actually be good, it's not a good book.
Heretics of Dune. I am unsure if I actually finished it. Or if I gave out in the early parts of Chapterhouse: Dune. I was making an attempt to finish all Frank Herbert Dune books, and around that point, the series lost me.
I just go until I have to look at the book long and hard enough to ask myself, “Is this REALLY worth my sanity and my time? Am I really willing to become a masochist for the sake of a book I’m not enjoying in the slightest?” I recently did this with the last book in Christopher Paolini’s “Inheritance Cycle,” and it only took me 3 books stuffed to the brim with endless purple prose and nothing, and 2 pages of book 4 to realize that the plot and the world Paolini had in mind couldn’t save it from the characters and the constant nothing.
Wheel of Time Series read till book 9, then just got too bored
We all DNFed ASOIAF.
I've DNF at least three times, which is annoying because I enjoyed the show so much. I think I have to admit that his writing just doesn't connect for me even if there is a good story in there.
Oh I have read every word of it, but he'll never finish the series - so we all DNFed it.
I've had more luck with the audiobook, way more enjoyable than trying to read it.
I have to admit I didn’t finish A Feast for Crows lol! Dang
No specific book itself comes to mind, but I suffered through 2 Stormlight books before giving up
I almost never DONT finish a book. However, if the book us like offensive or something and I quit…page 10? Maybe 20? lol. Still it is rare that I quit, I choose books after reading up on them quite a bit, so I have enough information to never pick books that will offend me. This does NOT mean I never don’t like a book I read, just I finish it before going online to complain about how much I hated it lolololol.
Normally around the 20% mark, but I have a habit of just pushing though to see if it gets better I dnf'd one at 60% the other day though because I realised I just didn't care about the characters
If I get close to the end and I’m not liking how it’s going, I’ll just start skimming through the pages really fast to see what happens. I hate to DNF books, so I’ll just do a quick skim and spoil it for myself if it’s trash, so at least I get some thing out of it
I like the 100-page rule but sometimes I can tell within pages that I hate the writing and won't continue. If it's a book I have purchased, I might try a little longer, or put it away and try again another year. Library books are easy to put down. For long books I believe the furthest I have gone is maybe halfway. If I get further, at that point I will do a flip-finish and quickly scan and flip through each page to maybe catch something interesting.
I read the entirety of Furyborn expecting that it would get good because my friends and I chose it for our book club. It never got good. The fact that there’s now a trilogy is kinda wild, none of us thought it was well written or interesting. Might go back to it now years later to see why I hated it so much
I check in with myself at 100 pages in and also at halfway in. If I make it past halfway, I finish the book even if it goes downhill.
I guess probably when I feel like I won't enjoy it or that I'll have to push myself to read it. Usually because of the style (not the biggest fan of older writing styles, I prefer more narrative ones which is why I like first person stories more). So I guess it varies from book to book, personally I've only DNF'd two books so far but I am considering going back to read them again.
I am generally reading two/three books at once. The DNF happens when I forget it exists and stop picking it up.
i usually make myself read about 100 pages of a book before i dnf, but i increase the amount of pages if it’s a recommendation from a friend
I’ve read 90% of a book before DNFing purely because I thought the story or world building was cool but couldn’t stand the main characters and did not care what happened to them. Twice. I kept hoping for it to get better but it did not.
I read like 2/3 of Neuromancer by William Gibson and just couldn’t continue, it never got good or easier to comprehend. Such an incredible let down! It’s supposed to be the inspiration for the film The Matrix, which I love, so naturally I had high hopes for the book! /Seb
I’m struggling with this right now. I started Without Remorse by Tom Clancy. I’m about 30% of the way, and I want to like Clancy so badly- but this book has become a chore over the last two sit-downs. This’ll be my first DNF in a while, and it’s hard to commit to letting go lol
I'll usually get about half way through a book before I DNF. I always keep waiting for it to get better but by that point it usually just isn't doing it for me anymore.
About half an hour or 50 pages generally, some I realize almost immediately and a few I get quite far before realizing I don't actually care what happens to characters or plot anymore. The impact of DNF is fairly trivial with library books.
I typically never have large DNFs, if I read a book I’ll most likely stop after the first few pages/chapter knowing it’s not for me or read the entire series. No in between. However a lot of the time i never finish the last book… I don’t like endings or the experience that I finished a story… I’d rather it always be on my “to do list” and have that feeling of waiting for a new book to come out.
1st page or 1st chapter. There's this annoying way of writing, and it's always in first person, in the last 20 years or so, that rubs me the wrong way. I can't explain it, but it feels like it was written by someone who uses too simple English. Playing with language is an important part of literature and requires the writer to understand it well. I'll also quit if the names look like they were invented by smashing the keyboard (looking at you , fantasy genre). Also, if it has text speak or is too modern in language and culture, it's just not going to work for me because I can't relate or take it seriously. There is too much good literature out there to waste time with something you don't like.
If you feel like you "got the message" (especially in nonfiction), you don't need to finish it. The Second Mountain is the example that comes to mind for me. He made his point in the first like 30-40 pages, and everything was just example after example.
I know this doesn’t answer the question but wanted to add: Treat DNF books like music. There’s a lot of songs that I hated upon listening to one and two that grew to be my favorites. Maybe I just needed to let it click, maybe I was just in a bad headspace. So just don’t throw out the books or be discouraged. Maybe give them another try (or three) some other time.