lishmcbride
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TBR of Doom -- the importance of the DNF
🕑 Added 2023-03-21 21:17:52 +0000 UTCI used to have a really hard time DNFing books. I would skim to the end, or power through, wasting long hours on books that frankly weren't worth my time. I'm not like that anymore--I DNF with abandon now, and a lot of that change was helped along by examining my own relationship with books.
I'm not here to conquer. I'm not here to beat myself up with a novel just because someone told me it was A Classic or ART or a Must Read or whatever. I'm a mood reader and I'm here mostly because I want to be somewhere else. Classic escapism. Nothing wrong with that. (My therapist keeps telling me its a good coping mechanism, but there are days where I'm not sure.)
My DNF's fall into a few categories--Not For Me, Not For Me Right Now, and Just Not Good. Very few fall into that last category. Even books I don't like much have some merit to them. I think as readers it's really helpful to figure out how to judge the other two for yourself.
What book is good for you right now?
There are some that fail to capture my attention that I know I will like at a different time. I might not be in the mood, or in the right frame of mind for different aspects of the book. It might be a complicated, in-depth fantasy with lots of feelings while I feel burned out, overwhelmed and in need of something totally different.
Or sometimes I read a book, consider it well done, and just know that it wasn't a book for me. I'm not compelled to read more by the author or pick up the sequel. There's nothing wrong with the book, I'm just not the right audience. Not everything has to be for me.
I have a lot going on right now (hahahahaha--when don't I?) and so it's even harder for me to put everything aside and dip into a book. I need it, but I'm not connecting. I tried a new mystery book on audio and made it several hours before I knew, for sure, that it wasn't for me, at least not right now. I felt gross listening to it. Just like my soul had been dredged through muck. The book was good, it was well done, but it was too graphic, dark and full of vulnerable people being brutalized for me to handle at the moment.
So.
I put it aside. Maybe I'll go back, but I doubt it. That's okay. I would recommend it to people who like gritty mysteries full of terrible people. (I am firmly in the camp that not all characters should be likable.)
But I need a book and everything I've picked up isn't clicking. This is when it's great to be part of a huge book community. I've been taking suggestions. I tried a new audio book, though the author has been around for a long time. I mean, there are 32 books in the series, so...I liked the first one--it was the Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry. I've never read Anne Perry. It was pretty good. May or may not check out the next.
I also picked up a book off of my gigantic TBR pile that several people have recommended, but I got another nudge from a book friend, Brie. Thanks, Brie--I've read the first 100 pages of Cackle today by Harrison when I definitely should have been working. But I needed a quiet moment, too. I needed to read and drink coffee and try to gather myself for taking on the day, the week. (I was talking to two friends yesterday about how shitty the week was for all of us, and I suddenly realized it was only Monday. Just Monday. UGH.)
This post is light on recommendations of specific titles for sure, but hopefully will help you give yourself permission to put aside the next lackluster read and move on to something else.
What books have helped you out of a reader slump?
--Lish
Comments
Yeah, it took me a long time to be okay with it, but you're right, so freeing! I haven't read that one yet!
Yes--this is a thing I've noticed more and more, especially since I'm a mood reader. Books that I'm not into one day, I'll love a few months later.
Massively Type-A personality, here, admitting that I was a 30-ish grown-ass adult before I gave myself permission to EVER not finish a book. It was a long time coming, but once I did, it was SOOO freeing. Now I abandon books without a second thought--and never look back--if I'm not enjoying them or I'm not hooked quickly enough. That being said, I don't really have "slumps", per se, but I just finished Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert and I L-O-V-E-D it. YA, witchy, creepy in the best way, with moody, beautiful writing. It's the second book I've read by her and I'm definitely a fan of her work thus far...
The Not For Me Right Now category is a very interesting one, because I've put down books literally for years before picking them up again, and finding, this time, I really like this book! I think "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" was like this for me. Sometimes it's not the right time, and sometimes I'm not (yet) the right reader.
