2BRd

Tag: dnf

  • Add this One to the Toolbox

    Another Resource for Helping ID “Worth It” Books

    I’m going to be incredibly boring and discuss something again from Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. I really wish I had liked the book more because the ideas in it were very good (maybe I will like a sequel!). The owner of the aforesaid bookshop starts putting notes in the books in the shop as she reads them, as a way to reflect on what she’s read.

    This got me thinking: what if I wrote down just a once sentence “moral” of every book I read? Something about what each book is trying to say? I’ve been reading a lot on how to better remember what I read, and reflecting on it is one of the tips. I think trying to condense each book this way would be a good way to do this.

    Of course, I then had a realization: There are some books I don’t want to do this for – some books just do not feel worth taking the time to do that. Which led to the “aha” moment that maybe the books where it doesn’t feel worth the time to reflect on the book are the books I should have DNFd. So now here’s another tool in the toolbox to refine what I’m spending time reading, and what I’m putting aside.

    Week 10 Update

    Last week I read two Amazon First Reads and three physical books for a total of five books read. I decided to change up how I show my weekly totals. Instead of breaking them up between eBooks and Physical books, I’m just going to show how many I have DNFd and read so far (and how many of those were added books from the library), plus the total number of books I have left to read (with how many total books I have taken off my TBR list).

    These are the books I read last week:

    The Golden Age of Magic by Luanne G. Smith – Historical Fantasy: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 2 stars

    (I would have DNFd this if I hadn’t been reading it for a book club.)

    The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart – Suspense: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    Bedknob and Broomstick by Mary Norton – Children’s Fantasy: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    Abscond by Abraham Verhese – Short Story: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida – Literary Fiction: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • The Pile

    Cutting Through All That Sameness

    Reflecting on the books I read this week, I was thinking about how many books there are out there that are just okay/good/fine. There’s not really anything wrong with the writing of them, but there’s just nothing special about them. There isn’t a character that you really connect with. It isn’t a story that you keep thinking about even when you aren’t reading it. It doesn’t make you feel anything out of the ordinary. Nothing makes them stand out from the rest. These books are what I call, The Pile.

    The Pile is where all those books live that aren’t bad. They just aren’t great. And unfortunately, books from the Pile get publicized. A lot. They’re everywhere. Book Tube. Those summer reading lists in magazines. Your mother’s friend who wants to recommend you a book every time she sees you. They often sound good, so you add them to your TBR. And after you’ve read them, you realize they’ve had no lasting effect on you at all. They were just, okay.

    I liken books from the Pile to network tv. Well, to be fair, most tv today. Appealing to the widest possible audience and giving up any risks or anything truly great in the bargain. You’re not going to find a Luther or Sherlock here. These are the shows where you don’t really have to pay attention to the details and can still understand what’s happening. The shows you can just have on in the background. That you can watch next week even if you missed this week and not have actually missed anything.

    There’s nothing wrong with books from the Pile, just as there’s nothing really wrong with network tv. If that’s what you like, go ahead and read it (or watch it). But if that’s not what you like to read, if you come away from reading one of these books wishing that you hadn’t wasted your time, it can be frustrating. It’s not always easy to identify these books. With a book that’s bad, you know it, but with a book from the Pile, you might think, “Well, it’s not so bad, I’ll keep reading.” And then suffer the reader’s remorse that follows.

    After a lot of thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that the way to think about it is: you shouldn’t be reading something just to get through it (most of the time). There are situations where finishing a book just to finish it is important (some classics, your book club book, etc). But generally, if you’re thinking about what you get to read after you finish this stupid book, you should stop reading right now. Because it’s not really good enough for a book to just be “fine”. There are too many books out there that are “GREAT!” that you could and should be reading instead. Why waste time just wasting time?

    And I think what it takes to stop wasting this time, is hyper awareness of your feelings as you read. Check in every so often while you read: “How many stars would I give this right now?” “Am I enjoying reading this?” “Am I wishing I was finished and moving on to something new?” This challenge has helped me so much, just by making me really think about how I am feeling about a book after 50 pages. Consciously asking myself if I want to keep reading. This is great at weeding out the bad books. But in order to weed out the “just okay” books, you have to keep asking yourself these questions. Because if nothing better is happening after 50 pages, if you don’t love any of the characters, if the story isn’t drawing you in. If it’s just background noise, maybe it’s time to put it down and read something different. Something great.

    Week 7 Update

    This week I brought my TBR down by 6 books (read 4, 2 DNFs). But I did purchase one book, We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida which I had previously listened to the audiobook from the library, and am going to read as part of a Goodreads challenge.

    That makes the current counts:

    These are the books I read this week:

    What the Light Touches by Xavier Bosch – Historical Fiction: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    The Answer Is No by Fredrik Backman – Short Fiction: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    I Think We’ve Been Here Before by Suzy Krause – Literary Fiction: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    The Fortunate Pilgrim by Mario Puzo – Historical Fiction: Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 4 stars

    And the books that I DNFd were The Last Second by Cathering Coulter and Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Danielle Coombs.

    And until next week, happy reading!

  • Ain’t Nobody Have Time For That

    DNFing, Part II

    I managed to clear nine titles from my TBR this week!

    Of course, I only read five of those all the way to the end. Four of them, I DNFd.

    This is a big deal. As I said in earlier posts, it is against my nature to DNF books. I find it really difficult to stop reading something once I’ve started it, even if I don’t even like the book. And I don’t think I would have DNFd those four books this week, if I wasn’t focused on this challenge.

    Because of this challenge, I’m hyper aware of how I’m feeling about a book as I read it. I’m thinking about what I would rate it, because I’m sharing how I felt about it after 50 pages here on this blog. I’m thinking about the difference between reading a good book that I really want to read and reading a book that’s just “meh” that I got for free. I’m thinking about all the books I really want to read and the time I’m wasting when I’m reading something I don’t even want to read. These are the books I DNFd this week:

    The first two were Amazon First Reads. If you don’t know what those are, if you are a Prime member you get a free book (from a list) every month. The past year or so they have also been giving an additional free short story. Until I started this challenge, I don’t think I actually read any of the books I got from First Reads. They usually aren’t books I would pick up in a bookstore, but some months have more interesting choices than others. Though I will say that it isn’t often that I can’t find something. (Of course, I still pick something every month. Why?! This is why I have a problem.) These two books I attempted this week, there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with them, but I just didn’t find myself wanting to keep reading. I wasn’t really interested in the characters. If these were books I had purchased, I probably would have kept reading them. Because they were free, I think I more easily gave myself permission to let them go. Doesn’t mean I can’t pick them up again someday, but right now, they weren’t holding my attention.

    The other two books were ones I had downloaded for free when I first got my kindle. I didn’t make it to 50 pages in One Night in Boston – I just disliked the main character so much I knew it was never going to work. As for the other book, I actually find freemasonry really interesting. But I decided my time would be better spent reading a book about this topic than this book, which was basically outlining the rituals. In the past, I would have definitely pushed through this one, and to be honest, probably not gotten much out of it.

    These were two very different kinds of books, but I really feel like I’m growing because I was able to stop reading all four, letting me spend time reading something I really was enjoying. That I’m actively trying to go through my owned books I think is making it easier to let ones go.

    Week 5 Update

    This week, I did win a free digital book from Fable (affiliate link there) called Two by an author I really love, Kristin Cast. I will be reading that as part of a book club starting next week. Fingers crossed it’s worth it! But that upped my TBR by one.

    In addition to the four DNFs that came off my TBR, I read five books. Here are the counts:

    These are the books I read:

    The God Project by John Saul – (Supposed to be Horror, but it’s more Suspense): Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 3.5 stars

    Final rating: 2 stars

    This was a book I inherited from my sister, and as I’d never read a John Saul book, I thought I should read it (and finish it). But I kind of wish I hadn’t found it buried on a bookshelf.

    Death Row by Frieda McFadden – Short Story: Not Worth It

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 3 stars

    Eleven Numbers by Lee Child – Short Story: Worth It

    Final rating (story was 50 pages): 4 stars

    When Night Falls by Margaret Daley – Short Story: Not Worth It

    Final rating (less than 50 page story): 1 star

    National Velvet by Enid Bagnold – Novel: Worth It!

    Rating after 50 pages: 4 stars

    Final rating: 5 stars

    And until next week, happy reading!