Bibliomania is the excessive collecting or even hoarding of books to the point where social relations or health are damaged, particularly as a symptom of obsessive–compulsive disorder.

[5] In the early nineteenth century, "bibliomania" was used in popular discourse (such as in periodical essays and poems) to describe obsessive book collectors.

In 1809, the Reverend Thomas Frognall Dibdin published Bibliomania; or Book Madness, a work described by literary critic Philip Connell as "a series of bizarre rambling dialogues which together comprised a kind of dramatized mock pathology, lavishly illustrated and, in the second edition, embellished with extensive footnotes on bibliography and the history of book collecting."

[6] In the late nineteenth century, book collections and collectors of note were given regular coverage as curiosities.

[8] Bibliomania became quite popular during the Regency era as the desire for first edition copies of books drove prices to unobtainable levels.