If you’re unfamiliar with modern bookish lingo, DNF is short for “Did Not Finish”. This is reader-speak for, well, exactly what it sounds like: a book one did not finish reading.

Some people are assertive — some might even say aggressive — DNFers. They’ll get part way through a book, decide it’s not for them, and abandon it right then and there — sometimes with extreme prejudice. They dump it, and they never look back.

I am not one of these people. ‘^^

My desertion of books comes mostly from what I call “Squirrel Syndrome”. I just happen to look up from the book I’m reading; I just happen to catch a glimpse of another book that also looks interesting (“Squirrel!”); and then I just happen to wander over to it, pick it up, and start reading it. . . .

Thus, in my case, when it comes to not finishing books, it’s not an abandonment so much as a distracted-from-and-may-or-may-not-get-back-to-it sort of thing. XD

In fact, because of this “syndrome”, I don’t even like to categorise books I’ve stopped reading as DNFs. The term just sounds so final. What if I get back to it? (I do, sometimes, return to books I’ve “abandoned” and finish them on a subsequent try — though I do usually have to start over first. ‘^^)

It just seems like too much to label a book one I Did Not Finish. How ’bout we call it a book I Have Stopped Reading For Now But Will Maybe Finish Later?

I don’t have DNFs. I have HSRFNBWMFLs. =P