Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library District

Episode 7 - Do Not Fear, You Can DNF!

• Green Hills Public Library District • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Join Sara and Tessa as they tackle the age old problem of should they finish something they don't like? Listen as they break down that they should have put down and what they did. And don't fear, you can always DNF! 

Interested in hearing your favorite book, topic, or genre discussed? 
Send a recommendation to ghpl@greenhillslibrary.org

SPEAKER_00:

Hi everyone, welcome back to our podcast. This is episode seven. I'm Sarah. I'm Tessa, and this is Checked Out with Greenhouse Public Library. So let's catch up with what we were going to read last episode. I did, in fact, finish The Right Move by Liz Tom Ford, and then I went on to continue the series, and I read Caught Up and Play Along. I really liked those three books in the series of four. Those have got to be my favorite. I rated them a four, five, and a four point five. Caught up just really was my favorite, hands down. And I'm super excited for the fifth and final book in the Windy City series that is coming out soon. And I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

SPEAKER_01:

I said that I would read Gifted and Talented by Olive Blake. And this is gonna play into what we're gonna discuss today in this episode. I ended up DNFing it or did not finish. I made it about 5% in, maybe like 20 pages of the early copy, and it just was not for me. And I'm trying to let myself DNF things this year.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, love to hear it. I am a big supporter of DNFing. I think that there's not enough time in this world for us to be reading things that we don't enjoy.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree, and I have that attitude about everyone except myself. So I'm I'm trying to make that happen.

SPEAKER_00:

So why did you end up DNFing gifted and talented?

SPEAKER_01:

It's a hard answer for me on this one because I have a very complicated relationship with Olive Blake, the author of it. I r one of my favorite books of all time is Alone With You in the Aether. I really enjoyed The Atlas VI, the first book of that series, and she really loses it in the second and third one. And then she's had two other releases that were previously in EPUB and then got brought to tour to be traditionally published. And those ones are just okay. Like I think they're probably like a three, three and a half star. Like they're fun, there's nothing crazy about it. But some for some reason this one, the characters are meant to be unlikable, but like I just couldn't I couldn't deal with their voices. I was bored, even though things were like happening, and I think I was supposed to be like really in it. And I was like, I genuinely I don't know. I was bored within the first five percent, and I figured that that probably didn't bode well for me.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so you would say like main criteria for DNFing would be that you're just not feeling the story, you're you're bored of it. Early on, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, like when it's a quick DNF like that, it's usually because I'm like, I can't see this going anywhere that I would care. Later on in books, when I'm like, you know what, I gotta go, usually at that point it's a it's a character thing for me because I've I've had enough time with a plot that I'm at least semi-enjoying. But if the characters are just still not doing anything to make me care about them, that's when they come into play for me at least.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I kind of have a similar thing. I um will very quickly DNF something if it's not a vibe for me, so I'm not enjoying it, or I don't feel connected to the characters, the plot is not something I'm interested in, which you might question, well, why did you even pick this book up to begin with? A lot of the times I'm like, hey, this is available on audio right now, and I need an audiobook, so let me start this. And like I said in our episode six, I will DNF more audiobooks than I do physical or Kindle books, just because it is easier for me to do that and to gauge whether or not I'm feeling connected or disconnected to the storyline characters plot. Um, so similar criteria there for me too.

SPEAKER_01:

I definitely agree that I will DNF an audiobook a lot faster and with less guilt that I put upon myself. With audiobooks, I'm not seeing the actual book or pages in front of me. And I think that helps me disconnect a little bit and be like, okay, I don't have to finish this. Because something about me is prior to the last maybe six months of my life, I did not DNF. If I started something, I finished it, and I felt that I had to, and I don't. I don't have to. Woo-hoo. I like that for you. I make I make the rules and I can DNF things if I don't like them. I will say one point that I will make for the finishing things, even if you hate them, is if I find that something is problematic, or I hear that there's problematic representation, or there's like controversy going on around the book, if it's something that I'm willing to dive into, because also there's a line for me, there are things that I don't read. But if it's something that I was like anticipating, or it kind of comes out of left field that that is occurring, I will finish that just so my thoughts and argument for or against it is fully informed.

SPEAKER_00:

So you bring up two pretty good points. The first is that the idea and concept of finishing your book in the book community is like pretty prominent. A lot of people are like, all right, if I'm picking up this book, I'm going to finish it. And I think that DNF culture, so to say, um, is becoming more prominent. And I really respect it. And I think that it should be integrated in the book community more than it is. Um, I love to see it happen. I am a huge fan of DNFing something that I don't like. Again, it's just I don't have enough time in my life to to stick through with something I'm not enjoying. But to continue with your thought that like you will finish something that is maybe problematic or has some commentary surrounding it that would allow you to be a part of that conversation and make your own judgments about it, I think that that's really interesting. I I've never done that before, I don't think that I can recall. I usually, if I get to a like problematic thing in a book that will like cause me to DNF and I'll be done and then I'll read the commentary on it. But I do like the idea of pushing through it to fully understand and then fully be able to be informed and have your informed opinion about it.

SPEAKER_01:

There is also a line to what I will suffer through, if that makes sense. Like if it's an entirely egregious, horrible that there's nothing to be gained, and the statement is just that this is problematic. I'm not gonna try it. Also, generally, if I'm like this is a one star, I finish it so I can hate it with my whole chest. Like to be able to be like, no, I suffered through this whole thing and I hate it.

SPEAKER_00:

You'll be a hate reader.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

But I'm like quiet about it. Like I'm you won't catch me like writing like hateful reviews. I might say this was not good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But I do hate read every once in a while.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I can respect that. I totally respect it. I think I've done a few hate audios in my life where I'm like, I just need to listen to this just to get through it. And then I can't wait to like get to my little good reads and you know, write my little heart out and put everything that I feel about this. Again, nothing that's hateful or mean towards the author, the characters, the story. Um, it's just my thoughts about like, yeah, this was not the vibe, but this kind of didn't do it for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Not liking things is okay. I need that on a t-shirt. You don't have to like everything, and not every book is for every person. And that's okay. Even if you think it's gonna be for you and you try it and it's not, that's okay. You cannot finish it. This is me talking to myself right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Preach, sister. Um, so I kind of want to ask you about reviews and leaving reviews for the books that we DNF. Because we just said we will do a little hate read and then go clickety clack on Goodreads. But for the books that you are DNFing, what does that look like for reviews or your book goal? Like what goes on there?

SPEAKER_01:

I have a threshold for what I will count towards my Goodreads goal. If I'm making it at least halfway through a book, I'm gonna count it towards my Goodreads goal. I've spent time in the world, I've dedicated a certain amount of time and effort and energy into it. And so, for example, like gifted and talented, when I brought that up at the beginning of the episode, that's not going, that's not going on my red shelf on Goodreads. Um, and something that quick of a DNF for me, I'm not gonna feel inclined to leave a review for it because truly all I would have to say was this didn't grip me or I was bored. And that's not helpful to someone to see like if they're looking at reviews to see if it's something that they would want to read. Um, I'm never rating a book that I DNF. I don't think that's fair to have not consumed the whole thing, and then to put a number that goes into a statistic that like directly influences if people want to read it or not. That doesn't feel fair to me. But I will write a review is a loose term for me there. It's more so a note to myself than anything to look back on. And I'll just like say if I was bored, if something specific bothered me, something like that. But I'm never going too hard. Same.

SPEAKER_00:

I used to not count my DNF'd books towards my reading goal. And I still don't for the most part, just because I DNF'd them at a point, like maybe 25% or less, that I don't feel that it is worth it for me to count towards my reading goal. I didn't spend enough time, like you're saying, in this world with those characters getting to be a part of this book. So that won't count towards my reading goal. But after speaking to some of my peers here at work, I have started counting books that I hit like 50 to 60% into in my my reading goal because I have made it that far. I've dedicated that much time into this book. So it's gonna count for me. As far as ratings go, I won't rate a book that I DNF'd again. I don't think that it's fair for me to rate it if I didn't finish it and I didn't get the full scope. Um, but I will do the reviews on Goodread, just like you said, as a note to myself. Like, this is what I didn't like about this book. This is what the vibe was. For example, I mentioned Paul Tremblay's The Paul Bears Club in our last episode. And in my review, quote unquote, I just said that this is such a sick concept, and it's great for the people that stuck with this and enjoyed this plot. It wasn't for me, but the concept is great and I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

Another way that I do look at counting it past a certain threshold, be it 50, 60%, whatever, is if your book is 400 pages and you're reading 200 pages of it, there are books that are 200 pages. Like that is still the amount of effort that would equate to one book. And you can argue that even the 20%. So if you're reading like 60 pages of something, yeah, that's still like a novella length. But I I think then you can cite back to us saying that to spend time in the world with the characters also adds into that.

SPEAKER_00:

That's an interesting way to look at it. I've never thought to look at how far I get in terms of page numbers, because the average like book that I read is maybe three to four hundred pages, but I do read a lot of like horror novellas or graphic novels that are shorter books, but if I'm hitting 150 in a romance book and then I'm DNFing it, that is equivalent to a novella, like you said. So it could count towards my reading goal if I wanted it to. Yeah. I think it's worth us talking about the different types of DNFing that we do and that exist in the book world. Yeah. So there's uh the soft DNF and the the hard DNF and kind of the differences and maybe what we do more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So if if you have literally no idea what we're talking about here, a soft DNF would be something that you start and then you end up putting down because it's just not the right time. It's not something you're in the mood for right now. It's something that you more than likely or at least hope to revisit at a different time. It's not forever, it's not, I hated this. It's not right now. We'll see later. And then a hard DNF would be you are absolutely not finishing it. It's it's done, it's over for you, and you're like separating yourself from it.

SPEAKER_00:

Personally, I do more hard DNFs than I do softs. I'll do very few soft DNFs. And if I do them, then I'm stopping very early on in the book. For example, romance community, please don't come after me. But Allie Hazelwood's Deep End, I did soft DNF that. It is just living in my currently reading right now on Goodreads, and I want to get back to it, but it's just, it's not happening for me right in this moment in time. But I will read that because I love her work and I'm sure that I'll enjoy this in some capacity. So that's one thing. I know that I did that with the stand. Um, I'm still doing it with the stand. I've soft DNF'd it. To be honest, I'll probably restart it when the time is right, just so that I have an easier time getting back into that world. But for the most part, I hard DNF things and you won't see everything I DNF on my Goodreads because I'll DNF them really quick and I know that it's not the vibe.

SPEAKER_01:

I am the opposite, I think. Maybe later in my in my DNFing journey, I will be more of a hard DNF person. I am generally a mood reader. I will abandon genres for like a longer period of time, even if I really enjoy them, if I've like burnt myself out on it. And I find that's when I will soft DNF the most, is I'll be like, oh, I'm in the mood for this fantasy romance. And then I'll read 10% of it and I'm like, you know, this is good, but actually I need like a slasher right now. So in that respect, I do a lot of soft DNFing. Maybe one day I'll go back to it. And I usually do for the most part. So I think maybe that's why I think I don't DNF because I will start them and then soft DNF them, and then I am like, oh, this just goes back to like my general TBR now, instead of being like, oh, I soft DNF'd this. So maybe I'm just a liar. Maybe I just spent this whole 20 minutes lying and I do DNF things.

SPEAKER_00:

You soft DNF.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to hard DNF more. And I have. I have done that so far this year.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I've done a handful of hard DNFs this year so far. I think more than I have in previous years, just because I'm really trying to get through my TBR and I've been getting a lot of my holds in on audio and doing a like listening to a lot more books and have the time to do that. So I've been more ruthless a little bit. Like, I don't like this, it's not vibing with me. So next.

SPEAKER_01:

We've been talking around the subject a lot, but I think it's time to to share some of our titles that we have DNF'd. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00:

This whole podcast I've been really big talk. I'm here like, I DNF. I have no issue. You you have you don't have time to read what you don't like. And now I'm have to tell you what I've DNF'd. Okay. So I guess I'm gonna start with ones that I DNF'd but had enough of a connection to that I left a review or like a note for myself about. And I already mentioned The Paul Bears Club, which was this year's pick for me. But one book that I DNF'd last year was Al Kennedy's The Dixon Rule, which is a part of her campus diaries series. And it is her newest series that she's been in the process of releasing now that she's been traditionally publishing. And just to preface, I love the Briar U and off-campus series. I think that they are so well done. They're some of my favorite books. They live on my shelves. Love them. But I had a really hard time with the second book in the campus diaries series, so much so that I ended up DNFing it, even though I really enjoyed the first one. And I thought that there were just some issues that I had with structure of the story, the way that passages were formed and sentences that I didn't feel were necessary completely. Again, nothing against the writing of these authors. It just wasn't something that was working for me in that moment in time. And I don't feel that would work for me if I picked it up again.

SPEAKER_01:

That's super interesting that you felt such a disconnect from her previous writing once she was traditionally published. Like I feel like that comes down more on editors than like the author themselves. One that I hard DNF'd last year is Middle of the Night by Riley Sager. And I have a lot of thoughts about Riley Sager as a whole. And the books that he puts out. I continue to read him, so that's like my bad, I guess. I don't know. I'm making that choice every time. I've only ever liked like one and a half of them, but middle of the night was just. Not for me. I thought it was going to maybe cure some of the things that I feel like he's done wrong in his other books because he was finally writing a male narrator and not a female narrator. I thought that maybe his writing of his main characters would be better coming from a man to a man. But it was so boring and I'm so sorry about it. The cover's amazing. Riley Sager has amazing covers. So good. Such great covers.

SPEAKER_00:

I won't be reading that one though. This is one that I have written a lengthy note for myself here. And I started off by saying that I was going to soft DNF it, but I don't think that that's true. I do think, in fact, I was lying to myself because I wanted to soft DNF it and go back to it, but I just I don't think it's for me. And it is Mother of Strangers by Sa'ad Amri. And it is a historical fiction, which first is kind of rough for me. I am not so into historical fiction, which might be the issue here. And second, it follows a character that I think was a bit flat for me. His desires and his wants were not fully fleshed out in the way that I thought they were going to be. I thought that there would be a little bit more substance to it, but it just seemed like every chapter it was the same rotation of thoughts that we were getting from the character, and it just got really boring for me. I made it about 20% in on audio, and it was just not it for me. So unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01:

That's on my TBR. It's a I don't know. I mean I DNF'd it, so I couldn't actually tell you. But um yeah, the main character's voice, it was just not not for me. That book in general is very meta with horror tropes and concepts, and in theory, love it in execution. I was disappointed and just like honestly couldn't keep being in that character's head anymore. Like it was starting to get a little grating for me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but that's like a great segue for me because this next book. So speaking of grading and characters' inner monologues being grating, The Most Famous Girl in the World by Iman Hari Kia. I just wanted to like this so bad. I did. I got 40% into it, but this book is whack. I really wanted to enjoy it, and I wanted to read something that was on beat with current culture, but it was just not hitting for me. I could not get into the mindset of this main character. It was such a struggle, and I felt like there were a lot of added factors and plot lines that were going on that were taking away from the main story. And if we just had the main story, I would be living. But we had to include a love interest, which is like crazy that I'm saying this because me, romance girly here, did not want the love interest. I just, it lost the plot for me. It truly did.

SPEAKER_01:

A book that really lost the plot for me was The Nightbirds by Christopher Golden. It comes out in May of 2025, and I was reading the early copy of it, and the horror aspects and the way Witchcraft was done. I also read this like very soon after I read Witchcraft for Way Were Girls by Grady Hendricks. So I was looking for a different kind of witch than what he presented there. And I think the witchcraft was done really well, but like the plot was just so meandering. It literally went nowhere. Like I was 70% in. And I was like, what am I here for? Like, what is the purpose? And my little Kindle said, You have like an hour and six minutes left. And I was like, I could do an hour and six minutes. And then I was like, No, I can't. I'm done here. I don't have to do an hour and six minutes for what? For nothing. So I didn't finish it.

SPEAKER_00:

I want us to shift gears into books that we should have DNA. Yes. And I've got a few here. Same. I'm looking at books that I've rated one or two stars. The first one that I want to talk about is an advanced readers copy that I read last year. And it was Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder. Um, and got the email that I was pre-approved, like a credit card, and I said, Yes, sign me up. I will do this. And immediately was like, no, this is not for me. It's a cozy mystery romance type of vibe. And I will like emphasize the cozy aspect there. I think that if it was bloody and gory and more thriller, that I would have been okay sticking it out. But the little perfectionist in me and the overachiever needed to finish it so that she could rate it on the NetGalley website. And so I did. And I really shouldn't have. But I did put down that it was just my personal preference, that that's why my rating was low for it. And so I did end up rating it on NetGalley as not my own personal rating, just what I thought the overall book was, taking my opinion out of it. But for my personal records, I did rate it a one, and I do think I should have DNF'd it.

SPEAKER_01:

I think the cozy subgenre of so many genres right now, like cozy mystery, cozy fantasy is kind of like having a moment right now, too. It's for a specific type of reader or a specific time. I've done that with a few cozy fantasies where I've really liked them. And then I've read a few where I'm like, this is I've never been so bored. So I get you on that one. And in no universe, do I think you're a cozy mystery girl? One that I wish I DNF'd was actually our staff book club pick. I wish I DNF'd Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. I'm not mad that I didn't though, because we had a really good conversation around it at the book club meeting. But if I was reading that on my own time, she would have been DNF'd. She was a one-star read for me.

SPEAKER_00:

Another book that I should have DNF'd is Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn. I struggled to get through this book, but I kept pushing through. And this is not a spoiler alert. This is just what I thought was gonna happen. I'm like, she's gonna start killing people. She's gonna lose her mind and she's gonna start killing people or get so obsessed with them and yada yada yada. None of that happened. So I guess kind of spoiler alert. But it was really disappointing for me because I was going into it expecting something and didn't get the return on my investment. And the book was not bad. It just was not great. And I should have DNF'd it. I will, though, be reading the second book that is coming out that takes place in that universe and is written by the main character in Perfume and Pain, just because I think it's an interesting concept.

SPEAKER_01:

I soft DNF'd that, but she's a hard DNF now because I kind of forgot that that happened to me. I do also really agree that I think the second book idea of it being her book that she wrote is really cool. I wonder if what we wanted out of Perfume and Pain will happen in that book. Another book that I wish I DNF'd was The Fury by Alex Michaelides. And I genuinely think that that is the worst execution of an interesting plot that I have ever encountered. It was bad all around. I have no other thoughts other than the execution and the characters and everything about it. Was just so incredibly disappointing when it should have been super interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

One that I finished this year that I should have DNF'd was an academy for liars. And I wanted to like this because I like Dark Academia a lot. I liked the plot. I thought that the plot was interesting. I just did not connect to any of the characters at all. And I know I talked to you about this because you read it and you were like, yeah, the characters are kind of just a vessel for this story. And it's absolutely true. I could have totally seen this happening to another set of characters and feeling so much more interested and engaged with the work than I was, which is sad.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. It's definitely a plot and like message forward book. My last one that I think that I should have DNF'd and everyone is gonna be it's gonna be shock and awe in the courtroom. I uh oh. I should have DNF'd Elantrus by Brandon Sanderson. What? Yeah. And I that's a crazy statement because I did still give it three stars. But I just should have DNF'd it. It's his first book ever that he published. He himself will tell you it's not his best work and tells people not to start there. And I didn't start there, but I did read it early on. There's like connections that I didn't need to know about. Like I would have been just fine. It's really boring and meandering. And I should have just stopped instead of being like, it's Brandon Sanderson. I must finish it. You don't have to. That's okay.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, so that wraps up this segment. We do have something new that we want to introduce to you all before we say goodbye. And that is a little book club that Tessa and I will be having together to replace our hot or not segment.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll let you guys know what the title that we are going to both be reading before the next episode is, and then we will check in. It will be a spoiler-free book club, so don't feel like we're about to give you every detail if it is something you want to read. You can definitely still listen through. It'll be more just us talking generally about our thoughts and feelings on how the read went. So for next episode, which will be out in May, we will be discussing our feelings on Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, her latest installment in the Hunger Game series.

SPEAKER_00:

As usual, if you would like to reach out to us with any comments or recommendations or even questions, feel free to shoot us an email at ghpl at greenhillslibrary.org.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you guys so much for listening. This has been episode seven. Do not fear, you can DNS. I'm Tessa. I'm Sarah, and we're checked out.