{Reading} Why I didn’t finish this book
One of my 5×5 Reading Challenge categories is titled “Tech and Being Human.” I included this category because I realized I have quite a growing list of books that touch on the topic of digital addiction and technology on our brains. One of the top books on the list was Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, which has almost 13,000 reviews and 4.5 stars on Amazon. I was sure it would be good… so I bought it. I didn’t even look at the “read sample” (and if I had, I wouldn’t have bought it. That first chapter’s title –I won’t even put it here–would have told me enough.) But I did, and I read about half of it, even though I was totally put off at the chapter’s title, and then the graphic details at describing just that…
–sigh–
I, personally, am very sensitive to sexual subjects, and try to steer clear of anything that might even come close to glorifying that. This book, especially that first chapter, was almost like staring into someone’s sexual sins…. for a long time… in detail. In later parts of the book, the author went into detail about other addictions, and each started with a compelling story of one of her patient’s lives and how they started whatever addiction they were fighting and why they kept feeding that addiction. There were some fascinating studies cited on addiction behavior, but her examples of “gremlins” on the pleasure/pain balance got more confusing as the book went on, and looking into other people’s secrets and sins was more and more distracting and upsetting.
When to quit a bad book
I should have quit right at the start, right when I saw the chapter title and when the author jumped into extensive detail on it. But, I thought “surely it won’t be this bad throughout, and it’s so highly rated…”
(mmm hmm, bad idea.) But while the subjects of addiction did change later in the book, the problem remained. That problem was what I found myself thinking about when I wasn’t reading.
And I was thinking about sexual sin, in all the detail provided in the book. And I was thinking about fear, because it seemed so easy for these people to become addicted. And I was sad about the people who were also sad about their addictions but couldn’t break free… And what if that happens to someone I love?
If I am trying to read my Bible, or sing worship songs in church, or listen to a sermon and I am interrupted with flashes of thoughts from this book. It’s time to throw it out.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved… Avoid godless chatter because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly… Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
-2 Timothy 2:15,16,22
Am I saying to never read secular books? No. Not at all. But in this particular book the author’s points could have been made with way less graphic details. I understand why she would want to write that way; the stories grip you and hold you, and make you curious to watch the destruction of someone… but that seems like godless chatter, and doesn’t help me guard my heart or thoughts, and instead leaves me in a sad state of despair and with images in my head that I have a hard time clearing out. So, one of my books of 2026 is being given a big, fat DNF (Did Not Finish) and this copy will be tossed in the recycling bin.
On to better things: The Evidences of Christianity, an apologetics book from 1833 from a series of lectures in New York by Charles Pettit McIlvaine. (Recommended by Susan Allibone. I won’t link to the book above, but will link to Susan’s book. EVERYONE should read Susan’s memoir!)
I get why she talks about these things the way she does. I only read a part of the sample on amazon, but it was enough, with your comments, to understand the issue here. Yes, she delves deep into what addiction to pleasure looks like. And sex, and climax, is the ultimate pleasure. Its one God created, to be experienced in marriage, in relationship with that other person that you have that life commitment with. Our society is so steeped in the isolated, erotic, I think she wants to create that scare, that shock, that other books have made. Like Irreversible Damage, or Anxious Generation. This act of intimacy has been twisted into something horrible. I’m sure she misses the impact of that, as I don’t think this is a book from a Christian worldview, and so she is going to create the biggest “shock” she can.
I’ve abandoned any number of books, and goodreads has been informing me that they are created a shelf for these books. If we have a shelf of a variety of words like “abandoned” or “discarded”, it will automatically get changed to be what their shelf is to be called. When I’m ready to drop a book, I do try to consider why. The reasons you give are good ones, I do think. I’ve dropped books b/c they were badly written, took my thoughts in wrong directions, or created an attitude of contention in me. Why does this book make me uncomfortable? Is it convicting? Is it just wrong?
I’ve also trashed books I didn’t really want anyone else to read, or burned them (usually used as fire starter!). After all, a good education is knowing what not to read!