It seems that Goodreads has added a new ‘Did Not Finish’ (DNF) shelf to their interface. As an author, this strikes me as cruel and unnecessary. But here’s the thing. Goodreads isn’t there for writers. It’s there for READERS.
As a writer, I approach Goodreads like it’s a room where I KNOW a large spider is hiding. Negative reviews on Goodreads can be brutal. If reviewers don’t like a book, they are not afraid to let you know their opinions. Writers generally treat Goodreads with caution.
As a reader, I pop into Goodreads a lot. I use it to keep track of books I’ve read and what I thought of them. I use the ‘want to read’ shelf when I hear of a book that sounds interesting and want to note it for later.
I review books, provided I enjoyed them and gave them 4 or 5 stars. I would review more 3 star books – which I consider to be ‘fine – I enjoyed it well enough, but probably wouldn’t read it again’, but 3 stars are seen as bad reviews, rather than neutral ones, so I’d rather not upset people. They just get quietly moved to the ‘read’ shelf without a review.
Do I like every book I read? No, of course not. I DNF books much earlier than I used to now, because I’m old and tired and don’t have time to wade through a book that isn’t giving me joy. But I don’t see that I need to tell the world that.
Writing a book is hard. Whatever I thought of the book, the author still took the time to write it. Besides, sometimes the reasons for DNF’ing a book had nothing to do with the quality of the book, any everything to do with me. So my dismissal of the book might put of readers who would have loved it, if they’d read it.
Reasons I might DNF a book:
- It contained something that I can’t handle at this particular time in my life. For example, children in peril is an instant nope.
- I might not have liked the way it made me feel. For example, I don’t particularly like being scared. I read a Stephen King book once and didn’t sleep for a week. He’s a great writer and the book did EXACTLY what it was meant to do. But I did not enjoy how it made me feel (tense!). That’s a me problem. Not a problem with Stephen King’s books.
- I might have been in the wrong mood for the book. (we’re all mood readers now, right?). I might return to it later and enjoy it. So why insult the author for no reason.
- It might be a slow starter. Now, arguably, if the book hasn’t grabbed me by the end of chapter two, it’s failed to do its job. But as a counter argument to this: The Award winning novel, Vernon God Little (by DBC Pierre) had a very slow start, but I persevered because people I respected told me it had an amazing ending. Boy, did that book pick up pace! I ended up really enjoying it.
- I might not get on with the author’s voice. Sometimes (very rarely) I come across a writer whose written voice grates on me. I have no idea why this happens. I wish it wouldn’t.
What about you? Will you use the DNF shelf on Goodreads? Or do you avoid going anywhere near the site?