Rediscovered: The Library of Brian — Inspiration, or Warning!?!

Brain Leno has a story about when he was a kid in Bismarck, beginning to buy paperbacks. He’d sit in front of the small bookcase he shelved them on and savor his library. His father made the bookstand “out of an old gutted TV.” Maybe he had 100 books. Kid Leno would wonder, “Does anyone else have as many books as I do???” Brian just found a snapshot of that proto-collection. “I think it’s very cool. Never thought I’d see an old picture of the beginning of my library. Imagine that little bookstand. . . and realize today I’m closing in on probably 11,000 or 12,000 books.” Those are books proper — I bet Brian is not counting or trying to count the myriad fanzines and journals and comics he must have. As a famed Autograph Hound I’m sure he’s tabulating up signed or inscribed books, but he has much more loose autograph material — signed photos, signed cards, signed letters. My guess would be his autograph trove must total in the tens of thousands of items, but that estimation might be…