Reading notes
How to use a DNF shelf: marking books you did not finish in Goodreads, StoryGraph and Hardcover
What a did-not-finish shelf does, how it affects your goals, and a simple routine for books you put down.
Best Book Tracker Apps editors · 19 August 2026 · 4 min read
Mark a book Did Not Finish as soon as you decide to stop, not months later. Goodreads added a DNF shelf in March 2026, and The StoryGraph and Hardcover already had one. On Goodreads, a DNF book counts toward your Reading Challenge only if it has a read date, so decide whether you want it counted before you save it.
Contents
What is a DNF shelf?
DNF stands for did not finish. It is a reading status, like want to read, currently reading and read, for a book you started and then stopped. Readers kept DNF lists for years by making a custom shelf and naming it themselves. Goodreads said as much when it announced its own shelf on March 13, 2026: it called Did Not Finish one of its most requested features, from readers who had been creating custom DNF shelves for years.
A real status works better than a custom shelf for two reasons. The app knows the book is no longer in progress, so it leaves your currently-reading list. And when you move to another app, a named status is more likely to arrive as a status rather than as a loose tag.
Which apps have a DNF status?
| App | DNF status | How it works | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | Yes, since March 2026 | Works like Want to Read, Currently Reading and Read. Counts toward the Reading Challenge only with a read date. DNF counts do not appear on book pages. | Goodreads blog |
| The StoryGraph | Yes | A did-not-finish marker alongside an Owned marker. The Goodreads import brings DNF shelves across. | thestorygraph.com |
| Hardcover | Yes | One of four statuses: want to read, currently reading, read and did not finish. | hardcover.app |
| Literal | Not published | Imports Goodreads' three core shelves and recreates custom shelves, so a custom DNF shelf arrives as a shelf. | Literal import guide |
Not published means we could not find the feature on the pages we checked, not that it can never exist.
How do you mark a book DNF on Goodreads?
Goodreads' announcement says you mark a book Did Not Finish the same way you set Want to Read, Currently Reading or Read. Your progress updates, rating and review stay with the book when you move it between shelves, so you can stop a book and still leave a rating or a note on why. The shelf rolled out to all readers over the weeks after March 13, 2026.
Two details matter. The first is the Reading Challenge: a DNF book with a read date counts toward your goal, and one without a date does not. The second is visibility: DNF shelving counts do not appear on book pages, so other readers do not see how many people put a title down.
If you already had a custom shelf called dnf or abandoned, move those books onto the new shelf once it reaches your account, so your history uses one status instead of two.
How do DNF books move between apps?
The StoryGraph imports your Goodreads currently-reading, read, to-read and did-not-finish shelves, and turns other custom shelves into tags. Literal imports Goodreads' three core shelves, ratings, reviews, and start and finish dates, and recreates custom shelves as shelves. Its guide says friends lists, comments and reading challenges do not come across.
Before any move, export your Goodreads library as a CSV file and keep the copy. After importing, open a few DNF books in the new app and check that the status, dates and any note survived. The import and export table lists what each app takes in and gives back.
What is a simple DNF routine?
- Decide your rule once, for example a page or percentage point after which you let a book go if it is not working.
- When you stop, change the status the same day and log the page you reached as your last progress update.
- Write one line on why you stopped. It is the note you will want if you pick the book up again.
- Decide whether DNF books count toward your goal. On Goodreads, that means adding or leaving out the read date.
- Once a quarter, export your library so the record lives somewhere you control.
If you often put a book down meaning to come back, DNF is not the only option. You can leave it in currently reading with a page note, or use a place-keeping app. Magic Bookmark, which is not a tracker, syncs to your exact page in a print book from a photo of the page, so you can pick up where you stopped.
Does a DNF status change your stats?
It keeps them honest. With DNF as its own status, your read list and finished-book totals only count books you finished, and the DNF list becomes a record of what you dropped: the genres, the lengths, the much-discussed books that did not land for you. For setting a goal that allows for books you stop, see Reading goals. For the terms used here, see the glossary.