Earlier this year I found a true story about an obsessed book thief and a high-up monastery that I loved & wanted to share: all of which (in a funny sort of way) brought to mind Allison Hoover Bartlett’s very enjoyable (2009) “The Man Who Loved Books Too Much“, which would be a nice Christmas gift for a bibliophile (I already have a copy, so it’ll just have to be Belgian chocolates again this year, *sigh*).
It’s a tale of how local teacher Stanislas Gosse found an old map in the Strasbourg city archives showing a nearby monastery’s secret stairways and passages, and then decided to go exploring. He ended up in an room in the library locked to the outside, and impulsively decided to take some books and carry them down the mountain – he ended up with a thousand books in his flat before finally getting caught. Of course, he never sold any, it was more a private obsession that grew for the thrill of it than for anything as sordid as financial gain, I suspect. Anyway, a great little story… enjoy! 