I used to not count DNF’d books as completed, but recently changed my mind a bit. I feel like if you actively decide not to finish you’ve already completed it in some way. Also allows me to rate and review on goodreads for example. What do you guys do? Do you count them? Is there a certain amount you have to read before you consider a DNF book completed? Or do you not think of them completed at all?
Edit to add that I “count” my books in my own reading journal, and I’m just curious about other people’s reading habits 🙂
by elleybean99
48 Comments
I don’t count books. Why should I? It’s not a race
I don’t think of them as completed at all because well they just aren’t
I will count a DNF as a finished if I read more than 50% of it, or if I am bored or not enjoying it I may read through certain chapters and not others.
I don’t count it. I rarely DNF but when I do it’s super early in the book.
I’ve never counted books. If someone asked me if I read a book I never finished I’d just say I started it but never finished.
I’ll mark it as DNF and give it 0 stars in my notebook, but I’ll leave it as unrated on goodreads. I try to put down the reason why it’s a DNF too. A lot of the time, I’m not in the mood for it or the writing turned me away – This helps when I completely forget the book exists and I’ve picked it up without knowing I already tried to read it
It really doesn’t matter what you or anyone else does. On the list of books I keep, I also mark ones that I put down before the end.
I don’t usually count them because if I DNF a book it will usually be a very early decision. I still rate and review on Goodreads, and click it as ‘read’ – but don’t put in a ‘completed’ date, so it doesn’t count towards my yearly total.
I like the Goodreads yearly self-challenge, because otherwise I might waste time and not read as much as I would like.
Counting a DNF as completed is literally nonsensical.
No, I only count books I fuck. /s
I add them on goodreads and I considered them read even though I know haven t completely read them. But if they were that bad that I dnf ed then I don t need to know more. When I think about how many book I have actually read in a certain period of time then no, I don t count them. i count them only if I read a significant part of them
Yes, if I read it enough to get the gist of the book.
Only if I read at least 50% of it. Otherwise no.
Depend how much of the book I have read.
If it’s super early on then no (although I have just now realised that Goodreads is still counting them) but if have read half or 2/3 of the book, chances are I still skimmed the rest of it just to know how it ended and so yes.
It’s not common for me to DNF a book though, it has to be really bad for me to abandon it, and usually I try to read the first 100 pages to see if it improves.
I log it as a DNF in my reading journal and note how many pages I read. I don’t rate it, but I do write why I decided not to finish it.
I don’t, but it’s your reading list and count and you should count how you want to count.
I log them as DNF, but it doesn’t go on the Read shelf therefore not on the yearly or total count, but there is record of them.
If I DNF it’s usually pretty early, so I really didn’t read the book or enough of it for me personally to count it. If I’m nearly at the end, but hate it, I’ll just finish to be done since I’m so close, so that I’ll count. (I also read fast by nature).
I don’t even tho it’s so rare for me to DNF. But you do you mate!😉
I don’t. If you literally didn’t finish, it is not completed. You can track it if you like, but it should be tracked as DNF, and it shouldn’t count as a book read.
No. I hold dear to my principles. That’s cheating to me. Cheating myself. I’d feel like a fraud saying I read it and not doing so.
I don’t count books at all. Seems pointless.
No, I only count books as read if I’ve read them.
No, you don’t get to count them as completed because they aren’t completed.
If you’re building a puzzle and walk away with it half finished do you get to say you finished it?
I have a designated dnf shelf on my goodreads. They still end up getting counted towards my reading goal but I usually far surpass it anyway so it’s not like I’m “cheating” or whatever.
I do count them, because I spent time reading it even if it’s not the entire book. I do however only write down the amount of pages I got through for my spreadsheet, so I don’t count the entire book as finished. On Goodreads I add it to a special DNF shelf and don’t give it any ratings (that’s the one thing I personally never understood, people who rate books they DNF-ed).
I don’t count them as completed because I didn’t complete them. Yes, I track books I DNF but I am honest about not having finished them. They don’t count towards my yearly reading goals and they don’t count towards any of my stats besides the DNF tracker. Saying “I feel like if you actively decide not to finish you’ve already completed it in some way” is just lying to yourself and anyone who might care.
I use the “did not finish” tag in Goodreads but select “Read” so it doesn’t always show as “Currently reading”. It’s useful for me to see I tried reading a book once upon a time, so I avoid trying them again.
I only add books I finished reading in LibraryThing.
I didn’t finish reading your post, but I’ll count it as read and downvoted it because…
I use Goodreads to track my reading, so if I dnf a book I don’t record it but wish there was a way to since I still read some of it.
Since I am done with the book (I am being dramatic) so much as to mark it a “DNF”, and having spent a considerable amount of time giving it a try, it counts as a book read. Of course I do mark where I left off and don’t give it a rating but I also always say “DNF at page XYZ”.
I don’t “count” them in my total of books read, but I keep notes on them on my spreadsheet so that I remember that I tried to read them/why I DNF’d.
I don’t track the number of books I read. I set my goodreads to 1 book and just use it because I like the yearly overview aspects of it. I would consider a book read if I read a significant amount of it, probably 2/3ish, enough to leave a review about why I didn’t like it enough to finish
Do you guys count girls you haven’t banged as girls you have banged? I used to but then I realised I was lying about a list that ironically I was the only person who would give a shit about. My hope is one day when I have dementia I will dust off my “girls I definitely banged” diary and believe that I used to be a real stud back in the day.
I don’t count them as completed; however, I still have them on Goodreads as part of my reading challenge, because for each book I DNF there’s two or three super short stories that are not on GR and I did finish.😅
I’m only interested in keeping track of the books I read, not the books I don’t read.
I’m only on Goodreads at the request of a friend, so I play by their rules, which is to mark the dnf’d book as unread.
For my personal journal, if I put enough time into it to have a strong opinion on why I didn’t like it, I count it. If I dnf’d early on just because I couldn’t get into it, I don’t.
I don’t count books. Some years I read 40, some years I read over 100. Over all the years, I read thousands of books. No clue how many.
Are you in some sort of competition?
If someone asked me if I’ve ever read a book that I dnf’d, I’d reply with *yes*, but I never finished it because I hated it.
If I read enough of a book to know I hate it, this means I read enough of a book to rate it, which means I read enough of a book to know it. Philosophically, logically, semantically, really in every sense, “I read part of this book” is closer to “I read this book” than to “I did not read this book”. I don’t understand why people are so obsessed with “completion” with books. It’s not sex people, lol. Unless you yourself are using your “book count” as some sort of sad competition and you’re scared people are going around reading 5 pages of each book and counting each as *completed* on purpose just to look smarter than you, but it’s all a lie, waaah not fair!
I keep picturing someone saying “I ate pie today” and some pedantic person coming up to me and asking *yes but did you eat it to completion?? How dare you say you ate pie if you didn’t finish your slice?? iT dOeSnT cOuNt*
I’m finished with them because I don’t want to read them any more. Therefore, they count.
In a fundamental sense, worrying about counting books is dumb.
Mostly if I DNF, I do it pretty early in the book. But I count it as “read” for my Goodreads annual reading goal if I get at least 70% through. For example, if there’s a book for one of my book clubs that I hate, I’ll power through to about that point. My reading goal is just for me, so it’s helpful to know which books I spent a bunch of time on. And in most cases, if I’ve read that much of a book, I’d be able to discuss it intelligently (especially if it’s non-fiction). But if someone asked me if I read a certain book, I’d tell them I didn’t get all the way through it.
I also keep two DNF shelves on Goodreads to track books I quit early on. One is for books I DNFed because I didn’t like the book. And the other for very long books that I might finish at some point. For example, I’ve been plugging away at the complete Sherlock Holmes for some time, but there’s only so much you can read at once.
When you quit your homework, does your teacher give you an A?
No.
I don’t count them but I do keep the pages I read recorded in Storygraph. I know that doesn’t matter to many people, but it’s fun to see for me.
The only way I count books is to categorize them by how much I enjoyed them. So it’s 1) love, 2) like, 3) dislike strongly (may or not include dnf), and 4) not for now (dnf’d, but will go back when I’m in the mood for them). It’s helpful when I’m thinking of recommending books to friends. Straight up counting like books they were little trophies doesn’t serve much purpose imo.
Some of you guys are monsters lol. If you didn’t finish the book then you didn’t finish the book. I don’t see any way around that, no “halfsies” or “3/4sies”, it doesn’t count. I can’t go to college for a year, decide I’ve had enough, but still try to apply for my diploma.
It is fine to put down books you don’t like. I encourage it. But to decide to mark it as “completed” is kind of lame. Just say you didn’t like it, couldn’t finish it, and move on to the next (hopefully better) read.
Goodreads desperately needs a “dropped”/DNF option.
I add all my scraps into the longest one that I got the essence. I recently read most of a book on meditation, just not the intro and coda. I quit a lot of books in various stages.
It depends on what my goal is. I don’t care about # of books per year, the only place I log that is on the app I’m using to log book. On that app I do log my DNF books. I use Storygraph and it allows me to rate and comment on a book that is marked DNF.
When it comes to my other goals I don’t usually count a DNF book, there are a few exceptions.