4 Reasons Why I’ll DNF a Book and why that’s totally okay (also thank you for 200 followers!!)

Hey guys! How are you all? Hope you’re all well!
This is actually so exciting to write but a couple of days ago we reached 200 followers!??!!
A Literary Latte has grown so much recently so thank you so much to everyone who supports my little blog! Genuinely means so much!
_{(and spot the new logo!!)}

Today’s post is actually going to be a total change of tune from a few weeks ago when I wrote this post. In it, I listed ‘DNFing books’ as one of my bad reading habits because YOU GUYS. I DNF SO MANY BOOKS. This month alone it’s the 18th and I’ve already DNF’d three different ones :))
But although I originally saw it as a ‘bad’ thing to do _{(because I wasn’t giving books a chance!)}, the comments on that post convinced me otherwise and I’ve changed my mind completely!
So in today’s post I thought I’d chat through the reasons I’ll give up on a book, and why it’s totally okay to! (and also maybe why you should to?)

Also, please stay tuned because I have a little form at the end that I’d love you to fill out to help me with a future blog post!!

So the first question that I obviously need to answer here is why do I DNF books?

1. I’m just not in the mood

Being a mood reader, I tend to know straight away whether I’m in the mood for a book. If I don’t know before I pick up the book, I’ll definitely know within the first few pages/chapters. (Or most annoyingly, sometimes it will be halfway through the book :)).
When this happens there is absolutely NO point in me continuing with a book because chances are I’ll hate it.
And so, the book gets DNF’d.
When this is the case though, if I know the book is objectively good I tend to pick it up another time when I am in the mood!

_{It’s also really weird because what I’m in the mood for is always so specific?? I could ditch a perfectly good summer contemporary for a similar summer contemporary? Or I could switch from a contemporary to a fantasy and then back to a contemporary. My brain is so annoying sometimes. BUT it does mean that when I find that book that I’m in the mood for, 75% of the time I’ll love it.}

2. I don’t like the writing style

For example, some things that are an instant no:

• If it’s in first person, I need to like the characters voice.
• The author can’t just be telling me what’s happening, I want to be shown! That makes all the difference.
• No to lots of short sentences!! If every sentence is super short and snappy:
  She stormed to her room. She slammed the door behind her. Anger raged through her. Why was her mum so annoying? She hated being grounded. This sucks.
  it sucks!! This is honestly the writing thing that annoys me most so please tell me I’m not the only one?

3. I don’t like the characters

This is kind of an obvious one but if I don’t like the characters then I don’t like the book.
I can deal with the character making stupid decisions, because that’s human nature.
But if the annoying personality sticks for too long and there is no character growth then goodbye.

An exception to this is Leah on the Offbeat which I just read and didn’t love? Leah was incredibly annoying and a little toxic. And the characters just didn’t read like they did in Simon VS? Like what was up with Nick?? But you should totally be proud of me because I pushed through and finished it!!

4. I just don’t care

Sometimes I really don’t care what happens? They could all fail their mission or the OTP could have a huge breakup or both and I just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Am not bothered.
So then I just don’t see the point of continuing a book if I’m not bothered about the plot or characters?

So those are my four main reasons for DNFing a book, but have previously just been my four main reasons why I’ll dislike a book. I always felt so bad for DNFing books because I felt like I wasn’t giving the book a chance, and so I’d push right through to the 1 star ending.
That’s especially because when I bought the physical paperbacks, I didn’t want to waste that money and couldn’t easily return it. But now?
I only ever read (e)library books or 99p Kindle reads (which are also refundable) and so I’m totally happy to ditch a book a few pages in.

Because after all, if reading is meant to be for fun and enjoyment, why force yourself through a book you’re hating?

What are your thoughts on DNFing books? What makes you want to ditch a book? Or why do you soldier on if you don’t DNF?

& If you can answer this form it would be really helpful for a future blog post _{(please don’t let it flop)!!}

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