Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

I have been following the interesting discussion of DNF-ing over in the Self-imposed reading rules - what are yours? tread.

What is roughly your DNF-ratio? How many book do you finish for each you DNF? My ratio is around 1:40 based on the last 6 years.

I am not counting books I mean to finish some day but havn’t touched for years.

I have an “abandoned” (DNF) about 1.5% of the books I’ve read since I started on Goodreads.

I have DNF'd 1.27% of my reads in the last three years.

So far this year I’ve DNF’d 3 out of 53 books (all books chosen for my women’s century or decade challenge, which I’d picked more for the dates than my interest).

Out of 171 books I've read since I joined in 2016 I have DNFed 3. I'm pretty confident in picking books I know I'll like. I struggle to DNF so it happens rarely.

The first one that I DNFed was because I picked it up against my better judgement. It was christmas time it was a christmas romance and had been on my shelf for years so didn't want it there till next Christmas. It was so badly developed and insta-lovely (the characters told each other they were in love 25 pages after they first met!!!) though I couldn't bare it and so DNFed my first book in about a decade.

The second one was Villette. That was well written but just the wrong time in my life to be reading it. My mum had died a few months previously and I was already struggling so reading about a character who was (view spoiler)[so obviously suffering from depression (hide spoiler)] caused me so much stress each time I went to pick it up that in the end I had to DNF it for my own piece of mind.

The third was Worm. It was an ok read but at 6000 pages long wasn't good enough for me to justify all the time I would have spent on it.

The last book I didn't finish was 'Anansi Boys' by Neil Gaiman back in 2010. Ever since, I've simply been very brutal about culling my TBR when anything distasteful reveals itself.

There are a few books I sampled using ebook resources and those I will not count. But just looking at this year I have read 76 texts, that includes some short stories, and there are really only two books that I deliberately put aside and said I am not going to finish these. They are both great books. I want to finish them someday: The Pillars of the Earth and Crime and Punishment. So that is 1:35 ratio this year.

Out of the 290 I have read so far, I have DNF'ed 5. That's a 1:58 ratio . I might finish Tess of the D'Urbervilles one day. George Eliot I have discovered is not for me. Middlemarch and The mill on the floss both were too much. Recently I added The Tale of Genji to the pile since it is disturbing in the extreme.

I generally enjoy older fantasy novels, but I abandoned two in the past year:

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees, after reading more than half the book. I lost interest in the plot and the characters, but apparently the ending was the best part. Oh, well!

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, after two chapters.
In this case it was a the lacklustre style of writing and the annoying sister.
The author seemed to be going for a fairy tale style that just didn't work.

I generally abandon two or three a year, sometimes more, sometimes less.

I also abandon 2 or 3 books a year. Most I mean to get back to someday. Last year I abandoned Milkman about halfway. Should I persevere?

Milena wrote: "I also abandon 2 or 3 books a year. Most I mean to get back to someday. Last year I abandoned Milkman about halfway. Should I persevere?"

I loved Milkman, but I enjoyed it from the beginning. If you’re not liking it at the halfway point, I don’t think your feelings will change by the end.

Ila wrote: "Out of the 290 I have read so far, I have DNF'ed 5. That's a 1:58 ratio . ... Recently I added The Tale of Genji to the pile since it is disturbing in the extreme."

I'm thinking of reading this, penned it for later in the year but might be next now, got distracted by Homer, so good to know.

I'm not very good at leaving books unfinished, it's still a work in progress

I try really hard to pick stuff that I want to read and that I'm likely to enjoy. But when I get the occasional dud, I get rid of it at the point where I just have an overwhelming feeling that I don't want to read it anymore. There's no page requirement - I kicked Twilight after about 4 pages but others have taken 100 or more pages.

I found that I was DNFing more books when I was just not honest with myself about what kind of books I liked reading, and also which authors I enjoyed. Now I'm much less likely to pick something up by an author if I didn't enjoy the last thing I read by that person.

I've found that group reads are a great way to find new authors and books that I might not have otherwise tried, but occasionally I'll have to DNF one of those also.

Pink wrote: "Milena wrote: "I also abandon 2 or 3 books a year. Most I mean to get back to someday. Last year I abandoned Milkman about halfway. Should I persevere?"

I loved Milkman, but I enjo..."

Ha, I just saw this reply. Thank you for your feedback, Pink.

I have only DNFed one book this year that I do not mean to go back to. It was a free audiobook through that program I forget the name of that does free audiobooks for young adults in the summer. It was The Epic Crush of Genie Lo, just too young for me I think. I did listen to Othello through the same program, so that was great.

I recently compiled the list of books from my bookclub. Of the fifty books, there was only one book I hadn’t finished; a book I chose! There were a couple of duds—and one extremely awful book—but I didn’t make it more than 150 pages before giving up.

Since I chose the book—Hild by Nicola Griffith—I was in charge of leading the discussion. It was several years ago, so all I remember is talking about why I gave up: the author switching between old English and modern contractions being the one I remember (editors, wherefore art thou?). The piece was historical fiction, and won a Nebula Award. But I couldn’t get past this contradiction.

Has this ever been a problem for anyone else?

I don't have a DNF shelf, I have "books on my Currently Reading that I'll finish someday, probably." I don't record the books I DNF, because if I get more than a couple pages in, I make it a point to finish it.

The only book I DNF'd this year was some YA book I grabbed from the library on a whim. I don't remember the title, only that it was a sequel to a book I hadn't read, either. I returned it after a couple pages of the main character's love interest smirking and being rude to her. By and large, I hate YA romances, so I usually avoid them on principle.

According to my reviews, the only other "DNF" book I have is a cookbook, because I didn't have the time to make a vast majority of the recipes in it.

Patty wrote: "It was several years ago, so all I remember is talking about why I gave up: the author switching between old English and modern contractions being the one I remember (editors, wherefore art thou?)."

Huh, I didn't notice that. I finished Hild only a month ago (after being on my Currently Reading list for two and a half years). That was a difficult book to read, I don't blame anyone for DNFing it.

my DNF'd shelf has 21 vs Read 556, so about 1:27

it's mainly long books that I call time on - even if they're quite well written and have some good aspects, I find myself thinking whether I can be bothered reading lots more of the same...

shorter books I usually grit my teeth and skim through to the end (and then slag them off in a review!)

I DNF'd 10 books last year (out of 148)
but so far this year only 1 (out of 60)
maybe I am becoming more tolerant in my old age!

Or better at choosing books?

Katy wrote: "Or better at choosing books?"

That's true for me.

To my shame I must say that The Divine Comedy is in my DNF pile as is The Pillars of the Earth. I have the physical books on the shelf waiting. I was so excited about them. Perhaps I will still get to them.