Florida Outlaws Returning Library Books After Six Weeks 

Mike Sernandez of Tampa became the first person arrested since the passing of Florida’s new law banning the return of library books borrowed for longer than six weeks.

“Six weeks?!? It’s ’Anna Karenina’,” he exclaimed upon being taken into custody at the Seminole Heights Public Library. “Nobody has ever read anything by Tolstoy in under six weeks!”

The new law, which took effect Wednesday, has exceptions for returning books by James Joyce and David Foster Wallace up to 15 weeks after they’re checked out but is punishable by a fine of $15 dollars and a jail sentence of not less than 89 years for books by any other authors.

“It’s a step in the right direction in creating a culture of respect for books,” said, Reginald Hubriss of the Tampa Bay Pro-Library Rules Alliance.

Asked what borrowers who might inadvertently keep a library book for longer than six weeks should do, Hubriss said, “I dunno. Keep it, I guess. Honestly, we don’t really care as much about books as we do about telling people what to do with them.”