ANNOUNCEMENT:

It's okay to not finish reading a book.

It really is.

I'm probably announcing this more to myself than to anyone else. It's a recent decision I've made for myself. I think the decision comes from a place of maturity? Age? Maybe both. Also, my word for 2022, ACCEPTANCE, played a role.

Fist, the pandemic changed my thinking on a lot of things. Basically, it helped me adopt a "life's too short" mentality. As in--life's too short to waste it away slogging through a book you aren't enjoying. Focusing on ACCEPTANCE this year allowed me to deal in what is rather than what should be, could be, ought to be, or was planned to be. To go along with that idea, I've also added a DNF (did not finish) tag to my Goodreads bookshelf.

As an author, I always hesitated to add the DNF tag. I didn't want to claim that another author's work was not readable. I wouldn't want someone to make that claim about my book. However, what I have realized in my post-read conversations with many, many readers is that a book can be enjoyed at various levels in various phases of a person's reading life. What might not be readable for one reader might be amazing for another.

For example, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love is a life changing book for me. My sister never raved about it like I did. We definitely were not in the same phase of life when we each read that book.

I've experienced it myself with the same book. My first read through Pride and Prejudice was torturous. I didn't love it. Heck, I didn't even like it. Now, I adore it almost as ardently as Darcy adores Lizzy.

So, I think it's okay and fair for me to, and any reader, to confess that he/she did not finish a book. Allowing this confession does two things. First, it allows me to still write a book review of the portion I did read. Anyone reading my review will have a more fair idea of my evaluation. Second, a public statement that I didn't finish it allows me to honestly enter a conversation as a reader. Surely, we've all been in those situations where we want to discuss the book, but we haven't finished it, so we're not sure if we should really weigh in on the conversation. Admitting limited knowledge is okay. In fact, it's preferable to either not FOMO or imposter syndrome. (And yes, I've seen both of those play out in the reading world.)

The DNF tag can actually be helpful. As an author, when I see a DNF tag for my own book, I can examine why the reader didn't finish. It will help me become a better writer. I always prefer an honest reaction to an insincere one.

And one more thing, GoodReads readers are intelligent. They are perfectly capable of reading through the many reviews and determining for themselves what to add to their "Want to Read' shelf. My one little DNF won't stop them if the really want to read it.

To sum up, if you needed permission to not finish and to tag a book as such, here it is. I received it from someone else a while back, accepted the gift, and now I'm paying it forward.

Happy Reading!

PS--I'd love to hear about the very best books that you just didn't finish for some reason. What a fun conversation that would be.