Monday 21 September 2015

What if I don't like the book I'm reading?

DNF'ing books.

For those who do not know, DNF means 'did not finish', therefore, if you were to DNF a book, you would not be finishing it for whatever reason.

So what happens when you get this feeling? Simple. DO IT. You are not someone who can be controlled by the thoughts and opinions of others. If you pick up a book on the recommendation of others, be it through Google, Goodreads, YouTube, the newspaper, the shop, a friend or family member etc., and it turns out that really, you aren't enjoying it, then that is completely fine.

-

When I first joined the blogging and BookTubing worlds, I never expected to dislike a book. Before I joined, I read tried and tested authors who had either written something else that I had previously read, or were so similar to another franchise I liked, that they couldn't go wrong (I'm looking at, and blaming you, Twilight). But then I joined YouTube and began a BookTube channel and this blog (which is now a year old - yikes!), and realised that there are so many authors out there, who write so many different things, and in different styles, and that I wouldn't mind trying them all out.

Well that was a bad idea.

I found authors I didn't like, topics I thought were very very wrong (I'm looking at you Stolen, and Gone Girl), and to be perfectly honest, BookTubers who only seemed to be in it for the money. That wasn't what I wanted. So I began properly researching.

I looked first of all for BookTubers who were based in the UK. Why? Because that is where I am from. No, I'm not being culturally picky here, I couldn't care less where you come from, particularly if you're a wonderful person (and I'm sure you are). The reason I chose the UK to start my search was because if I found book recommendations from UK BookTubers, I knew I was guaranteed to find books they were talking about. Which was also a weakness. It opened my eyes to the various ways I could access books in the UK, and I bought pretty much every recommended book going that I thought I would enjoy. And in all honesty, I really didnt enjoy a lot of them. Some I found were juvenile, other just weren't to my taste.

And do you know what?

That's okay.

If you do not like a book, for whatever reason, you are not required to read it. This isn't school or college or university, you will NOT get an exam in it. It's almost guaranteed that if you force yourself to read a book, you will decrease your chances of ever enjoying it, and pretty much end up in a reading slump - another place you do not want to be headed too.

I don't really know where I was going with this, I just wanted to blog some thoughts that have been going around in my head the past few days. I hope you're all well, and do you ever DNF books? Or have you ever wanted to, but didn't grab the opportunity? Let me know in the comments!


Goodbye for now!