DNF?

[dhampyresa]

Poll #xxxx DNFs
Open to: all, results viewable to: all

What is the minimum amount of book you will make yourself read before dropping it (in most cases)?

The limit does not exist (0%)
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
The limit does not exist (100%)

Was recently attempting to reading a book and found myself dreading picking it up again (just... so slooooooow). DNF (Did Not Finish) it is! (I actually gave the book more of a chance than I usually would, on account of: (a) i got it at an event where I got it signed/met the author and (b) it is a beautiful physical object.) Now I'm curious what "rules", if any, people have with DNFs? Are there things that make you read more/less of a book before you decide to drop it?

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I ticked the 20% box but the submit button didn't work.

[schneefink]

No hard rules, it completely depends on why I started reading. If it is a recommendation from someone whose taste I trust I will make myself read a lot more before dropping it. If it is a random book I picked up, maybe 40% if I had to pick?, idk.

[yuuago]

I noped out halfway through the first page once.

[sovay]

Now I'm curious what "rules", if any, people have with DNFs? Are there things that make you read more/less of a book before you decide to drop it?

I don't think that I have any rules. It's extremely rare for me not to finish a book, cf. as recently as the day before yesterday when I read two books which I did not particularly enjoy and then fortunately a third which I really did. Especially if it started well, sometimes I finish a disappointing book just to figure out what went wrong. I don't think of it as a calculated decision. It is probably still a factor that unless I have thrown myself on a nineteenth-century novel the size of a telephone directory, there's a limit to how much of my day it can eat even if it's a book I then proceed to write friends aggrieved e-mails about.

[senmut]

Because of The Hobbit, my rule of thumb became 5 chapters (if short), or 50 pages. Anything that doesn't hook me by then, is likely to get flung.