Plenty of Nothing

Boxed Set

The Tale of Genji boxed set. This kawachibon dates from the Kamakura period and is held in the Hosa Library in Nagoya.

Third Skin for the MacOdrum Library

Fifties-style.

Eighties-style.

And now. Read.

The New Library Is Made of Angles

Inside the New Library

The New Library is Made of Sky

Lego Keshen-Goodman Library

By Paul Partington.

Naruto Rules Montreal

This interactive map of the most popular titles in the Montreal library system shows that Naruto is the most popular title in the Montreal library system.

Diamond Sutra

The British Library is currently displaying the earliest known printed book, a Diamond Sutra printed from wood blocks in the year 868. This copy survived to our day by being sealed away for eight centuries in a hidden chamber in the Mogoa Caves near Dun-Huang on the Silk Road.

Anchor Archive

The Coast has a story about the Anchor Archive of zines move to a new home in the back of the Plan B store on Gottingen Street. It took me a moment to notice that the xeroxed text in the lower left of the photo is Wonderful Hell.

On Loan

See a set of photos taken at the Greenock Central Library in 2012.

Morton were to have hosted Dumbarton today, but this weekend is the Quarter-Finals of the Scottish Cup, and Dumbarton are still in it. The matches are: Raith Rovers v St. Johnstone; Aberdeen v Dumbarton; Inverness v Dundee United; and Rangers v Albion Rovers. The Morton-Dumbarton game is rescheduled for April Fools Day. [St. Johnstone, Aberdeen and Dundee United advance. Albion Rovers hold Rangers to a 1 - 1 draw.]

What is the worst goal difference in each Scottish league this year? Hearts -27 (Premiership), Morton -27 (Championship), East Fife -26 (League 1), Queen's Park -32 (League 2). Also: Selkirk -49 (Lowland), Rothes -80 (Highland). (As of March 1st.)

[Three Championship matches take place, all ending in draws. Morton now can finish no better than fourth in the division.]

Books about Greenock Morton available at Amazon.co.uk. In the Inverclyde Libraries catalogue. At the Bodleian.

Stuart Findlay is on loan from Celtic. Barrie McKay is on loan from Rangers.

Yesterday Boulogne hosted Frejus Saint Raphael and won 2 - 1.

The soccer season is under way in Japan. New for 2014: the J3 League. This new third-tier division has been carved out of the old Japan Football League, which now becomes the fourth tier. Each club will play 33 games, or three round-robins. It's a semi-professional league (or as they say in Scotland, part-time) with a minimum of three professionals and a maximum of two foreigners per team. Some of the clubs will be familiar from the early rounds of the last Emperor's Cup: Nagano Parciero and Blaublitz Akita stand out. I'm going to follow Grulla Morioka, who were not even in the JFL last year, but just gained promotion from the Tōhoku League in northern Honshu. They wear white, red and black, like a crane, or grulla in Spanish. Grulla play their first J3 match tomorrow at Gainare Tottori, who were recently demoted from J2. [Grulla Morioka nil, Gainare Tottori nil.]