Thought Corner: Revisiting How To Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price Seven Years Later

I first read Catherine Price’s How To Break Up With Your Phone seven years ago (in March), and it was for review. I remember liking this book, even though nonfiction, specifically self-help, isn’t something I typically reach for. Since then, it’s sort of sat on my shelf and become the kind of book I would always look at and think it was time to revisit it, but somehow I never made the time for it (even though its short, coming in under two hundred pages). In 2025, I’ve gotten more reflective about the internet at large, and as a result, I took a detour last month and ended up rereading this book.

Even after six years, How To Break Up With Your Phone retains its timeliness, especially with its chapters about social media, memory, and the way technology intersects with our lives, in both helpful and harmful ways. It’s an excellent book. And, even though this was a reread, I was left with plenty to think about by the end of it (essentially food for thought), because when I thought about it, I’m not sure I fully appreciated everything this book does when I first read it. At least, the topic it covers wasn’t as relevant to me then as it is now, especially when lately I’ve been thinking more and more about how I want to engage with the internet and social media.

For example, at the beginning of 2025, I thought I would dust off my old Instagram account and start posting regularly about books again—even if it was only once a week—since I no longer use twitter to share even links to blog posts. But, then Meta changed its policy, and I was left in the same position as before. I know there are other platforms I could try, but I haven’t done that, especially when I know it’s just as easy to post things like reviews and photos to the blog too.

All that to say, How To Break Up With Your Phone offered plenty of information to engage with independently, but it could also serve as a starting point for conversations.

Musing Mondays (28)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB(Jenn) at A Daily Rhythm, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

And I’m back to blogging! I hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday. So, moving right along, this week my musings have to do with DNFing books. It’s a topic I haven’t really spoken much on before, so I thought I would do a post about it.

Usually, if I feel the need to DNF a book it’s because I’m not personally enjoying my reading experience. I give the books the first 100 pages, sometimes even a little more, to impress me enough to want to keep reading. But on some occasions I just give up and move on. It could be for a number of reasons—sometimes its the story itself despite the writing, which could be some of the best I've ever come across, it just depends.

I have no problem DNFing a book or sharing my reasons for doing so. Think of it this way. Why would I want to spend hours finishing something that I’m not enjoying? I have a bunch of books sitting on my shelf that are practically calling my name—I figure that it would be better to spend time reading what I enjoy rather than the other way around. I used to be the kind of reader that tried to finish every book I ever started, but by doing that—even trudging through books I didn’t like, from start to finish—I ended up in too many reading slumps.

The bottom line is that DNFing when necessary works for me, especially when I don’t have the enthusiasm to continue on with the book in question.

So, what are your thoughts on DNFing? Do you feel the need to finish every book you start?