When to Add a Book to Your DNF Pile

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I always find it hard to put things down, even when I find them boring or not my cup of tea. In fact, as I sit here writing this post, I can’t really remember any book or movie that I didn’t finish once I started it. 

Okay, maybe just one movie. I have a very vague memory of my sister and I walking out of a theater playing Born Free because we were just dreadfully bored and didn’t want to be cooped up in the theater on a beautiful summer day watching people with soporific British accents play about with lions.

But, generally, I tend to finish what I start. I suppose it’s because I’m somewhat picky about the books I read and the movies I watch. Lately, though, I’ve had bad luck with TikTok book recommendations.

I have been trying to read more to help with my own writing and to help with my sleep hygiene (much better to read rather than scroll before bed). I have a pattern of switching between literary classics, nonfiction, and contemporary fiction. I also make a strong effort to read books written by marginalized voices.

My most recent somewhat “classic” read was from someone who’s not a marginalized voice, Canada’s John Irving. I’m reading his book, A Prayer for Owen Meany, on Kindle. I nearly put the book down multiple times. The author’s fixation on the burgeoning sexual interests of eleven-year-old boys just wasn’t that interesting to me. And it just went on for pages and pages. 

But Irving has a way of writing hilarious tableaus, and amidst the violent throws of a community that forces people to fit in when they don’t, there was deep humanity that Irving wrote about. When I read the scene culminating in a reverend heading a silent prayer for Owen Meany as an awful headmaster stalked out of a room that was being presided over by a headless statue of Mary of Magdalene, I was in awe at the bravura set piece that Irving had pulled off.

I will definitely keep going and finish the book, and I’m glad that I persevere and kept reading. But I’m looking forward to following the book up with more writers of color to help round out my reading.