Remarkable Rochester: Reflections on the people, places and things that bring us togetherWe all have unfinished business. Projects that didn’t get done. Calls that weren’t made. Promises that weren’t kept. There are even things I haven’t finished myself.
For starters, it’s books. I look around the bedroom. There are books everywhere. And, among the stacks, are books I didn’t finish. Guilty.
Though, in my defense, The New York Times writes that it’s A-OK now to DNF, shorthand for “Did Not Finish.”
Goodreads, the website where readers report on their reading, has even made it possible for book lovers to indicate they didn’t finish a book. All they have to do is click on DNF, digitally putting the book back on the shelf.
The dispensation from the Times
and Goodreads may not curtail book-club brawls between those who insist that everyone get to the end and those who don’t care. However, it still gives permission of a sorts to those who don’t make it all the way to the end.
I’ve met the non-finishers. They are nice. They are well-intentioned. They are me.
Give us a break. There are all sorts of reasons for not finishing a book. It could be the plot. It could be the length.
Often, too, it’s a nap. Naps subvert reading. Your eyes close. No pages turn.
Speaking of non-finishers, I’m reading the novel, “Country People,” by Daniel Mason.
The main character, a guy named Miles, has a DNF situation on his hands, as he can’t quite finish his Ph.D. dissertation.
Actually, he has a hard time starting his dissertation as he keeps switching topics, a new train of thought derailing his last train of thought.
At one point it’s even trains that do the derailing, as he becomes curious about locomotives in Chekov, or, better still, Tolstoy. Could be.
In defense of Miles, I would point out that there are many things in the real world that don’t get done or that take a long time to complete.
Sometimes, too, there are false finishes.
The “Ted Lasso” series, much-loved and much-needed during and then after the pandemic, called it quits in 2023 after three seasons. There were tributes, wakes, and tears.
The series is back again. Season 4 is up and running on Apple TV. “Ted Lasso” wasn’t finished; it was just stalled.Stalled? I love that word.
Remember the “Stalled Hyatt Hotel” in downtown Rochester?
Construction for the 27-story Hyatt Regency Hotel was off to a good start in 1985. Alas, it stopped in 1987 for all sorts of reasons involving money.
The building’s exposed skeleton loomed over the city, fair game for pigeons and critics.
What was once a work in progress, a sign of Rochester on the move, became an emblem of a city frozen in place. Critics pounced, columnists snarled.
Eventually, the stalled Hyatt moved off the DNF shelf, and the hotel opened to fanfare and relief in 1992.
We might take a lead from the Hyatt saga and bring back the adjective “stalled.”
Instead of saying we didn’t finish a book, we could say our reading was stalled. That shifts the blame away from the reader and onto whatever led to the stalling, a nap, etc.
It would work in other circumstances, even finishing a column like this. I could say my search for a suitable ending, a bit of profundity, was stalled. Not my fault. See you later.
From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott writes Remarkable Rochester about who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: It’s OK to quit a book and maybe a few other things, too
