English

Noun

book-ghoul ‎(plural book-ghouls)

1. (rare) Person who vandalizes books by ripping their pages out and stealing them.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Andrew Lang, The Library, page 56:

     There is a thievish nature more hateful than the biblioklept. The Book-Ghoul is he who combines the larceny of the biblioklept with the abominable wickedness of breaking up and mutilating the volumes from which he steals.

   • 1959 January 25, Elizabeth Lawrence, Bill Neal, editor, Through the Garden Gate, ISBN 0-8078-1907-7, page 5:

     I bought the text of the volume on bulbs for a dollar. It had been priced at a hundred dollars before some book-ghoul tore out the fifty-eight plates to use as decorations for lamp shades and scrap baskets.

   • 1973 August, Julia Fields, “The Plot To Bring Back Dunking”, in Black World, volume 22, number 10, page 70:

     And the front doors were locked. Locked for what? Burglary? Ol' book-ghoul come to retrieve his pictures from E-boney?