Biblio-Diseases

by

Lauren Roberts

Despite the constant deadline pressures, running BiblioBuffet is such fun for me that I often find myself thinking affectionately about it even when off duty. I think what I like the most—aside from fabulous contributors—is the variety of book-related material on the site. As long as it has to do with books or reading BiblioBuffet will write about it.

One of those most enjoyable parts to work on is the Literary Amusements page which is composed of two sections: Literaria du Jour and Reading Remarks. This daily feature offers short wacky literary facts that are mostly amusing, sometimes appalling, while Reading Remarks focuses on what people have said about reading whether amusing, thoughtful or ironic.

Researching these is fascinating. I love finding quirky facts and atypical remarks. It’s a satisfying feeling to dig around in numerous books of literary facts, games, puzzles, quotes and definitions, and come up with these bits that are not only entertaining but educational in an offbeat sort of way.

This week I decided to use Reviews & Reflections as a playground to explore a different type of literary amusement: language, specifically those words that pinpoint the (thankfully) incurable diseases of booklovers.

What are some of those diseases? Well, they range from a simple love of books to the need to bury books. They show people as passionate, obsessive, weird, crazed and even hateful about books. Though I am grateful to the Oxford English Dictionary, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and several online dictionaries for their assistance, I must also acknowledge the contributions found in Books by Gerald Donaldson and Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction by Tom Raabe. Some of the names and definitions from those are as yet unknown to any dictionary I could find, but in my opinion they would be worthy additions to any book lover’s vocabulary.

Abibliophobia = The fear of running out of things to read.

Bibliobibuli = Those who read too much.

Bibliocharylodis = A dangerous whirlpool of books likely to drown unwary readers.

Biblioclast = A destroyer or mutilator of books.

Bibliodemon = A book-fiend.

Bibliognoste = One knowledgeable about title pages, colophons, editions and all minutiae of books and bibliography.

Bibliographer = A describer of books.

Biblioholism = The habitual longing to purchase, read, store, admire and consume books in excess.

Bibliolater = A worshipper of books.

Biblioklept = One who occasionally steals a book.

Bibliokleptomanic = An chronic book thief.

Bibliolestes = A book-robber.

Biblioloigos = A book pest or plague.

Bibliomane = An indiscriminate accumulator of books.

Bibliomaniac = A book lover gone mad.

Biblionarcissist = One who pretends to be more bookish than she or he really is.

Bibliophage = One who eats books.

Bibliophile = A lover of books.

Bibliophobe = One who fears books.

Bibliophthor = A book-destroyer or waster.

Bibliotaphe = One who buries or hides books.

Biblioriptos = One who throws books around.

Bibliosopher = One who gains wisdom from books.

Bibliowebbies = Bibliomaniacs who web-shop until they drop.



Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, 800 bookmarks and approximately 1,000 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) and Book Publicists of Southern California as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. You can reach her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it