I was born with a reading list I will never finish. ~ Maud Casey
I feel this quote deep in my soul. I was not a natural reader and by the time I became a reader - I already felt behind on my lifelong reading list. I devour books - especially when real life leaves me alone. And for many years - no matter how much I hated a book I would always finish.
This year I have vowed to stop.
I know that some people are vehemently against DNF - “did not finish”ing - a book. Putting it down part way feels wrong. Abandoning a story part way through makes people uncomfortable. I understand this - I do.
I DNF’d a book I had been so looking forward to just last week… And I am still wondering how the incredibly predictable and boring book would have turned out. (I mean we all knew… nevermind…)
Other readers that I love to chat with have confessed to “hate reading” a book and I think I have done that and didn’t know it was a thing? But I am still not sure I can do that often. The idea of making myself read something brings up horrible memories of high school english classes and trying to relate to The Old Man and the Sea or understand why I had to read about spoiled rich white boys with alcohol problems.
But the fact of the matter is time is finite and time for reading even more so! So I have vowed to DNF more often and it is a bizarrely freeing feeling. I put down a book and moved right on to one that was completely brilliant. I feel less stalled in my reading, not avoiding the looks a book gives me as I find yet another thing that needs to be cleaned instead of reading.
So - here’s to DNFing books that are not right for us (or at least not at this time) and here’s to all the time that gives us to read all those other books on our TBR piles that never get smaller.