As I have mentioned before in a previous post my one
personal book related pet peeve is not finishing a book I started. I think my
reasoning behind this boils down to the fact that I only attempt to read books
that interest me in some way. Therefore when I do begin reading it, I have put
my faith into it being enjoyable. Not wanting to give up on the story or the
author, I tend to give it too many chances and often I am disappointed. I worry
that if I stop I might miss out on something that turns out to be great. Now I
have to admit that although I do value the opinions of other readers and
bloggers, I don’t rely heavily on their reviews. After all everyone has their
own tastes and preferences, right?
But here is where my dilemma comes into play.. I have a huge
TBR pile, both on my physical shelves, on my kobo and Kindle for PC. Then there
are all the books I discover on a daily basis and add to my “Want to Read”
list. Now I know that I won’t read every single book that I desire in my
lifetime, but I’m going to damn well try hehe. So let’s say I were to continue
on with every book I begin but don’t enjoy, just for the sake of finishing it.
Imagine how many other wonderful books that I will miss out on in my lifetime?
Is it really worth it?
If you read my April Wrap-up post, you know that I am
currently reading two books: The Time is Now by Pauline McLynn and A Tiny Bit
of Marvellous by Dawn French. Both of which I picked up at a library book sale
a couple of years ago. The descriptions on their covers must have caught my
attention at the time, but I didn’t bother re-reading them before diving in,
once they both reached the top of my TBR pile. I also didn’t bother to read any
of their ratings or reviews on Goodreads. Had I done this, I would have learned
that neither of them are very favoured. Unfortunately I agree with the other
readers in the case of these two books.
The Time is Now by Pauline McLynn is a dual time period
novel that follows different residents living in the same building but in
different generations. Normally this would really interest me but after 55
pages and 2 attempts to get into the plot I have no connection whatsoever with
the characters.
As for Dawn French’s A Tiny Bit of Marvellous, it promised
to be a very funny contemporary story about a family that isn’t perfect.
Unfortunately at just under 30 pages, I’m finding the 3 narrators to be quite
annoying. Out of my two current reads, this book is the one I’m more than
likely to find some enjoyment in. But is it worth it when I want to slap the
characters silly?
After weighing my pros and cons, I have decided to bite the bullet
and add The Time is Now to my newly created DNF shelf. I’m going to give A Tiny
Bit of Marvellous a second shot, however if it doesn’t get better soon, it too
will be shelved.
Well look at that! I wrote myself into a decision and made a
blog post all at the same time, haha! Now that is what I call productive. I
hope to do an un-haul post sometime soon, as I will be cleaning out my physical
book shelves and reorganizing them, so stay tuned for that.
What are your thoughts on DNF’ing books? Do you shelf them
or suffer through knowing it isn’t for you? I’d love to get a discussion going,
so leave me a message in the comments.
Thanks for stopping by.
Onto better books I go!
