The book returned unread has still helped someone discover what they do not need today.

Finding out that something is not for you now is a real result. The book that goes back with a bookmark at page nine has answered a question, even if the answer is that your appetite is elsewhere this month, and treating that as a failure adds guilt to what was simply information. Not everything you begin is meant to be finished by the version of you who began it.

Return the thing without apology and note what you were actually looking for instead. That note is more useful than the book was, and it makes the next choice better aimed.