Let’s Talk Bookish: Giving Books a Second Chance

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022.

September 1st: Giving Books a Second Chance

Prompts: After DNFing a book, do you ever go back to it? What would prompt you to give a book a second chance? Are there any books you would never consider going back to?

For the most part, no, though it does depend on why I DNF’d that book. In the past I have put a book down with the intention of returning to it, but for some reason don’t for quite a while, and it kind of lives in this grey, limbo area between ‘currently reading’ and ‘DNF’. Likely it ends up here because it’s quite dense, or I’m struggling with it for some reason, or maybe finding that it’s quite information heavy so it’s easier for me to digest in small bites. If I DNF a book because I start and get a strong sense it’s not what I want to read right now, for whatever reason, then I might return to it at some point, likely because something about it grabbed me and still made me curious enough to think about it now and then and wonder what actually does happen in the rest of the book.

For the most part, if I make a deliberate decision to DNF a book, I’m not going back to it. I very rarely DNF, and when I do it’s because for some reason I find the book incredibly difficult to get through or read. Maybe it’s littered with spelling mistakes, or there’s something about the POV character that’s off-putting, or what I’ve read feels just ridiculous, and not in a good way. Usually I get a sense early on (with some books, anyway) on whether it’s one I’m going to be able to continue with or not, occasionally I might leave it until the 10% point to see, but other times I’ve put a book down after only a handful of pages, and in those instances, I’m not going to make myself suffer by forcing myself to read it.

What about you – have you DNF’d a book, only to go back to it later and find your reaction to it is different?