About Me

Welcome to Time’s Flow Stemmed, a space inspired by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of “flow”. This project is a journey through the labyrinthine corridors of literature, unearthing novels, stories, poems, and non-fiction works that, while often overlooked, have resonated in some way.

This site is a testament to how literature has been the constant undercurrent in my life, shaping the very fabric of my personal and imaginative reality. Books, this personal blog and associated social media, have been both the architects of friendships and the catalysts for unforgettable experiences.

Some of the books discussed are hidden gems, scarcely known enough to be remembered, while others have been quietly revered by a niche group of readers. The books mentioned here are a testament to the whims of fate and the serendipitous journey of a bibliophile. Among them are works that have been published or resurrected by small publishers and canonical classics.

Time’s Flow Stemmed is a reflection of a life lived through and alongside books.

Should you wish to join me in these conversations about literature, feel free to contact me via email at timesflowstemmed AT gmail.com. While I have mixed feelings about social media, I do organize my reading collection on LibraryThing. I can also be found on X as @timesflow.

This blog was previously featured in The Guardian and was honoured as the Blog of the Year 2011 by 3:AM Magazine.

Thank you for visiting Time’s Flow Stemmed. May you find here a gateway to moments where time stands still in the flow of literature.

Anthony

58 thoughts on “About Me”

    • Thank you. I added your blog’s feed to my watch list today. It appears we have uncannily similar film tastes, judging by your recent post. Yes, that is my library.

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  4. I am not a blogger so far; yet I love your ideas and let us hopefully communicate more on what we read. Not just naming books and authors
    Krishnan Unni.P

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  5. Thanks. Love the amateur ethic and the list of favourite writers … Big Beckett fan myself. Lots of reading for me here! Regards from Thom at the immortal jukebox.

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  6. Szymborska’s quoted manifesto is exactly right—there’s something deadening about reviewing. For me, at least, the felt need to review takes over and inhibits actually lingering with the work (whatever the medium). It seems like you’re the same. Much better to follow out the thoughts brought to the surface by reading than to try to find the exact balance of praise and blame to dole. (And I find that reading such responses is much better advertisement, anyway—I’d rather find the stimulus of new thoughts than the stimulus of praise.)

    I’ve written one review proper on my blog. It’s a failure. I wrote it only because I had come up with what I thought (and think) is a pretty clever bit of wordplay—the only redeeming quality it has.

    I’ve read some of your posts, and enjoyed them. I’ll be stopping by more often.

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    • Thank you, pleased that you enjoyed some posts here.

      Aside from a few of the bloggers I include in my blog roll. I don’t read reviews much either. Reading is so subjective, so personal, that straight book reviews are dead as soon as the words hit the page. I’ve come to trust some readers as having a taste broadly similar to my own, but sufficiently different to introduce me to new writers frequently.

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  8. What a delightful library! I myself aspire to have something remotely close to this some day. But for the time being it seems rather improbable.
    By the by, this blog is a constant source of learning for me, Anthony.
    Also, it inspires me to read more!

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  9. Dear Anthony, I note – with a touch of sadness – your recent absence from the howling desert of Twitter, but would like to wish you a very happy New Year in any case. I have had email issues of late, so may have missed a few updates to your blog, but continue to visit and enjoy same… Anastasia

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  11. Hi,
    I’m a german blogger and discovered your fantastic and visionary blog while taking a walk through english literature blogs.
    I’ll visit you once more and learn much !
    Regards from Herbert Steib

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  13. Well, hello, I’m an INTP too. We are rare, you know:)
    I came here via Twitter re your post about modernism… and I wonder, do you distinguish it from postmodernism?

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    • Yes, very rare, the 5% I think. I once signed up to an email discussion list at intp.org but it soon drove me a bit nuts, reading messages with all that intensity!

      Modernism is a house with many rooms and I think literary postmodernism falls into Bradbury’s category of those second generation modernists who were optimistic about its freedoms.

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      • LOL I think INTPs by definition are resistant to joining such groups!
        A broad church, yes. I have just finished reading Kenzaburo Oe’s Death by Water, a book which resists labels of all kinds, I think….

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  14. I found your blog earlier this month. It is a exhilarating blog, and excellently written. I was struggling to find inspiration in regards to what to read next, but reading your blog has given me much to think upon, for which I am very glad.

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  15. 100% agree that if a book doesn’t move you, stop reading it! Of course some do take some time to get into, but I have wasted too many hours on stories that have never gone anywhere!

    Your blog is inspiring. Thanks for keeping at it!

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  17. Hi Anthony, you are invited to participate in my Bookish Time Travel Tag, if you so choose. Check my blog post for more details. Thanks, EnglishLitGeek

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  18. Anthony, I just discovered your site and I am so glad to have found it. It is wonderful. Thank you so much. As it happens, I have recently been thinking that I must somehow find a way to make peace with the passage of time. I will be 73 next month – “Time’s winged chariot,” etc. Your site has already helped me in this quest.

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  19. Regarding your list of the Bowes & Bowes series ‘Studies in Modern European Literature and Thought’. I’ve been collecting them for about 10 years. I have 25, with the latest found yesterday (Malraux). You may have already seen my covers on Flickr.

    A couple of things:

    ‘Romanov’ should be ‘Rozanov’ (no doubt a pesky auto-spell-corrector).
    Charles Peguy and 49. Samuel Beckett should be 1965 not 1956 (numbers transposed).

    In addition to the Fernando Pessoa, Nietzsche, Robert Musil, and Leopardi which you reference, there are 4 other titles listed as in preparation on the back flap of various titles in my collection, all of which then disappear in later back flap lists, presumably abandoned:

    Karl Barth by D. M. McKinnon
    Berdyaev by Morris Philipson
    Karl Jaspers by Werner Brock
    Remy de Gourmont by Garnet Rees

    Cheers,
    Ben

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  25. Anthony, I have a random question. I’m torn between purchasing Quignard’s Abysses and Villa Amalia. I know one’s a novel and one isn’t. Which one would you suggest?

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