To your right (if you are viewing the standard edition of Time’s Flow Stemmed) is my blogroll, an old (by web standards) custom whereby a blogger recommends other blogs. I read each of the blogs in my sidebar, usually through Mr Reader on my iPad. I follow many others, but those in my sidebar I follow diligently hoping to participate in a conversation. I fail to comment as much as I’d like, but I love them all dearly for what they provide, whether  cultural curation, writing about books or challenging the way I look at literature, and indirectly at life.

The blogroll is subject to change, not because I’ve fallen out with a blogger, but because I find myself skipping their posts; our literary or musical or cultural pathways have diverged too far. It isn’t personal, and I am possibly following them in other ways (on Twitter or WordPress for instance). Many of the blogs I used to follow, for all sorts of reasons, are less active these days or dormant. With conversations increasingly taking place on Twitter, blogging can feel like shouting into the void these days. At one point I considered renaming this blog to “Comments (0)”.

In each case, I recommend you investigate what these blogs have to offer. To ease your exploration I provide a link to my favourite content from each blog over this last year. Each of these posts provoked an action (usually a book purchase) or  offered me a fresh perspective.

A Piece of Monologue
That Other Word

Being in Lieu
A fundamental desire to tell over the contents of what may (but may also not) be told

bibliographing
On John William’s Stoner: “He felt his inadequacy to the goal he had so recklessly chosen…”

biblioklept
Biblioklept Interviews Stuart Kendall About His New Translation of Gilgamesh, Altered States of Consciousness, and Terrence Malick

BLCKDGRD
In this case start with the most recent post and work in any direction. This sprawling smorgasbord of poetry, music and links rewards exploration.

Book Me…
Dolly Delightly reviews books that gets ignored from the literary blogs I follow, and writes like a dream.
Richard Burton: An actor with a scholarly appetite for learning

Caravana De Recuerdos
On Marguerite Duras’ Moderato cantabile

Danny Byrne Blog
The Walk, by Robert Walser

Departure Delayed
On Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge: “He died a hard death.”

flowerville
flowerville is often provocative with an impeccable literary nose. I suggest you dive in and read it all, but I loved Truth as the aim of art

Frances Farmer is My Sister
Start at the beginning with My Vomitous Blog Manifesto and stop reading when you are fainting with sleep or starvation.

I was not born in English
Magda Kappa writes beautifully, poignantly.
Homespotting

in lieu of a field guide
Coetzee’s lecture novel

Interpolations
Mr. Interpolation’s original contribution to scholarship

Love Dog
Almost impossible to narrow down to a single post. I could send you to this but perhaps just go to the archive and play and wonder.

Magnificent Octopus
About Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic: We don’t notice things change

noxrpm
The juxtaposition of music, literature and philosophy: start at Butterfly Conversion and then read the archive at will.

Nonsuch Book
lightning rods by helen dewitt

pieces
I think of Michelle as my literary twin. If she loves a book, it is pretty much a certainty I will feel the same way. Heroines – Kate Zambreno (first thoughts)

Postcards I Keep
I love Rim’s writing, fierce and erudite. Her Tumblr blog is one of the few that constantly inspires me.

ReadySteadyBook
A bibliography for The Faith of the Faithless

Rose Amer
Vulgarity

Schietree
So pleased that I discovered Helen’s blog, a joyful writer and good photographer.
The smallness of what we can gather

So Many Books
Some History of Greek Tragedy

Tangerine and Cinnamon
Unlike the others on my blogroll, Sarah Emily’s blog is about food, eating, and cooking. There are a lot of awful food blogs catering for that odd breed, the foodie. Tangerine and Cinnamon is an exceptionally good food blog. The weekly links are also well researched and chosen.
A world in your coffee cup

The Complete Review
Essential and wide-ranging, but you knew that anyway.
Life Form by Amélie Nothomb

This Space
I can’t always keep up with Steve’s mind, but enjoy the exhilaration of trying.
Apostle of impassioned sincerity: My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Verso’s Blog
My favourite publisher’s blog. I could spend my time reading only Verso books.
Books of the Year—As Chosen by Verso

Vertigo
Diagnostic Snapshots

Waggish
American Imperfectionism: Siobhan Phillips’ Poetics of the Everyday

why not burn books?
Don’t miss David Winters’ reviews, curated on his blog. David is the brightest literary critic I know and read.