There is a specific kind of reading exhaustion that comes from realizing you are 247 pages into a book you do not even like anymore.

You keep picking it up anyway.

Maybe because everyone else loved it.

Maybe because you spent money on it.

Maybe because you are convinced the plot twist is just around the corner.

Maybe because quitting somehow feels like failure.

Meanwhile the book sits on your nightstand radiating obligation instead of curiosity.

I think many readers quietly stay in relationships with books long past the point where the joy has left them.

Learning to DNF books more intentionally completely changed my reading life.

Because once I stopped treating every unfinished book like a moral failure, reading became fun again.

There are probably thousands of reasons to DNF books (share your most unhinged reasons in the comments to help validate this theory). Here are a few common ones:

• Triggers
• Poor writing
• Dislike a main character
• Too much of something (violence, language, spice, etc).
• Bored with it
• Life got too busy

Whatever the reason, it is perfectly valid to stop reading a book any time that you see fit. This is not an assignment; you are not being graded. (If it is, you should probably finish it. Education is important).

Let’s face it, sometimes we continue reading a book after we have thought about quitting. Granted, this might pay off in some cases. In others, we spent hours forcing ourselves through an experience we stopped enjoying long ago. There are a few things that generally drive this decision…

You’ve already invested money and time into this book. Now you feel obligated to finish it. But buying into this logical fallacy isn’t strategically aligned with leading an intentional reading life that aligns with your goals. Pouring more time into a book that isn’t hitting for you is just digging you deeper in the hole 🕳️ – losing more time and bumming you out in the process. Say no to book guilt.

It can be hard to quit a book when anyone else has an interest in our finishing it.

Sometimes we continue reading books for an audience that barely exists.

• The internet is praising it.
• Your book club loved it.
• Your friend swears the ending changes everything.

So you keep going, even while the reading experience itself starts to feel heavier instead of meaningful.

Other people’s judgment can be scary. So we push through, even when it steals our joy.

This “reason” can be buttressed by guilt when we feel we’ve committed, given our word to someone, that we’d read that book.

But consider it self-care with a side of good boundaries to let that shit go.

Deciding whether to push through a book based on the hope that it improves is a personal judgment call. Some books do get better, others not so much. So when you find yourself in the situation where you could go either way, ask yourself,

‘Why do I think this will improve?’

• Is the answer backed by evidence?
• The word of someone you trust?
• A gut feeling?
• How much time do you want to commit to finding out if it does get better?
• How will I feel if I read the whole book and still don’t like it?
• Is that feeling better or worse than how I’ll feel about not finishing?

Not every unfinished book belongs in the same emotional category.

Not all DNFs are created equal. Many times, we stop reading a book for reasons that will not change. One in a while, we just aren’t vibing with the book right now. We need to press pause and come back to it in a different life season. Neither is wrong. This is a part of intentional reading.

Make a plan for those ‘not right now’ books. Set them on a specific shelf or tag them as try again later. You’ll carry less regret if you give yourself permission to set aside books you suspect will be good, but not right now.

• you keep reaching for your phone instead
• reading feels like homework
• you dread picking the book back up
• you are continuing out of guilt alone
• you cannot articulate what you still enjoy about it
• you are only finishing to say you finished

As you might imagine, it’s hard to review or recommend a book you haven’t finished. As your faithful book blogger, I try to finish the books that I start. It’s not always easy. If I were reading for my own pleasure alone, there are probably more that would land in my DNF pile. However, when I notice that I am not enjoying a book these days, I take it as an opportunity to ask why and to analyze who the right audience might be. So it becomes a bit of a game for me.

That is not to say that I don’t DNF books. I do. Not frequently, but it does happen. When I DNF, I don’t review the book. Some go into a special pile/folder to be reconsidered or passed along later.

Ultimately, whether you DNF a book or choose to carry on is a personal decision. The Intentional Reader Reset can guide you through creating your own DNF philosophy. Having guidelines that you follow can help relieve the stress associated with making these decisions.