The DNF phenomenon

DNF is short for "did not finish". There is no more potent criticism of a book, of course, than to admit that you did not finish it

It is possible that some readers of this newspaper are, like I once was, in the habit of treating the worlds of the internet and that of “real” books as being in two wildly separate universes. I understand the temptation to do so: Given what the average internet commenter has to say about politics, sport, cinema and gender, one should not be interested in seeking out what the internet may have to say about books. Yet, of course, this is completely the wrong way to think about it; not just because even the otherwise grimy Indian section of the internet