Book checked out in 1986 finally returned to Canadian library

A Manitoba, Canada, library said a book was recently returned by a patron who checked the tome out 36 years earlier.

The Winnipeg Public Library said a patron came into the Louis Riel Library to return an overdue copy of The Horizon Book of Ancient Rome, which had been checked out Oct. 14, 1986.

The patron said the book had come along with him on 28 different moves over the years.

"Unlike most highly overdue books where someone finds it in a box or closet that just suddenly appeared long after it was forgotten about years earlier, I have always known where this book was, on my shelf in full view. Haunting me. Taunting me. Invading my dreams," library officials quoted the man as saying in an Instagram post.

The man said he was inspired to return the book after hearing about another book returned in Winnipeg after 33 years.

"I never did read it. I suppose I didn't have it long enough to find the time to," he joked.