November Group Read: First Check-In

[kalloway]

Here we are, one week in. Have you finished or started anything? How are you feeling? (It is perfectly fine if the answers are "no", "nope", and "augh", of course.)


For added optional discussion, if you'd like- Do you ever DNF (Did Not Finish) books? If so, what makes you DNF something and when? Style? Content? Not grabbing you after x% of pages? Something else? Or are you the type of reader who finishes everything you start, no matter what?

Comments

[peaceful_sands]

Finished this last week - I am Pilgrim, Sway and Get Organized: Do More in Less Time (yep only two of those were in my original list but not to worry). I found the first two really good and the third okay - yes it had some good ideas, but also a bunch that I know wouldn't work for me at work or home. I also DNFd The Word Exchange I just couldn't get behind the characters and the plot was getting the best of me so yeah - it is no more.

I'm still struggling through Eve Green - I'm nearly a third of the way through and that's going to be the cut off - if it hasn't grasped me by then it's going out without finishing and I've just started Considering Phlebas (another that wasn't on my original list - basically this jumped the list because Audible are offering a 2 for 1 on the third and fourth book in the series for this week, so I thought I should finally get around to trying it out to see if I should take advantage of the offer).

I used to rarely DNF but instead books would be put to one side to come back to later but time and age and lots of good books and not enough time to make it through them all have convinced me that I shouldn't waste my time on things I'm not enjoying. Things that lead to a DNF - type is too small or I don't like the type on the page (e.g. the pages are too yellow or the font is unnecessarily strange or hard to read), I'm bored by the book and it's not grabbing my attention (not that it needs to be action packed but interesting), too gory or gruesome or violent. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and sometimes find that a good narrator will get me through a book that I couldn't get into when trying to read it myself, but a bad narrator (bad for me, not necessarily bad themselves) will lead to a DNF - some voices just don't work for me and the longer the book the less likely I am to stick with it. I still do temporarily DNF some books, thinking that if I come back in a different mood or at a different time, the book might work for me - sometimes I'm glad I did.

[kalloway]

it had some good ideas, but also a bunch that I know wouldn't work for me at work or home

I feel this way about basically every decluttering/organizational book I've read. There's generally something in each one that does work for me, but a lot that doesn't. At this point, it's just building a little toolkit of things to try and keeping what works and ditching what doesn't. (And recognizing when the advice is just downright bad, oi.)

[peaceful_sands]

I agree, that’s pretty much been my experience too - the decluttering book that told me I should have no more than ‘a small shelf that incorporates reference books and books waiting to be read’ was on to a losing streak at that point - clearly the author didn’t have quite the same love of books and reading that I did!

[kalloway]

I think I've only ever read one organizing book that flat out said 'if you want your space to look like a library because you like books, go for it', but unfortunately that was also the book that liked to put everything in decorative boxes and then stack them, which would absolutely guarantee I never put things away in/use anything in those lower boxes.