Lost tales of the book of days

Ewan opened his eyes. He couldn't believe it. Well, no one would. At least no one with a commom mind or a simple notion of reality.
He was in a room filled with books, maps, old furniture and the scent of all the ancient stuff from fairy tales.
An old man with a blank look in his eyes didn't seem to notice the figure that's just arrived out of nowhere, so he decided to make the first contact.
-Excuse-me, sir, where am I?
The old man looked amazed in his direction, and pointed out:
-Ahhh, my friend... the correct question would be... when are you.
-Ahn... ok, whatever you prefer. When am I? - if the strange man was to play a riddle game or something, he should be up to it if he was to to have the answers he wanted. His mind was racing.
-'havent the foggiest! Hah! I was hoping you could tell me. Who are you?
-I'm... Ewan. And you?
-Another thing I hoped you could know - he looked annoyed.

Silence fell between them. An awkward silence, indeed. A few moments - well, as many you could think of - passed before one of them spoke.

-So... Mr. "I don't know who I am", what are all these books of yours?
-Finally, one I can answer! 'tis the time nexus, the registry I've started... ahn... well, details, details. I am researching.
-Researching what, exactly? - as the conversation would probably take more time than Ewan would like, he sat on an armchair next to the man.
-Well... nothing... nothing specific. I'm just checking the registries of the time travelers. Maybe I can find something useful, maybe not.
-And how exactly a... time traveler arrives in this... place, I mean, this... time?
-That's a good question, isn't it? - the man was excited, thrilled - I never notice 'cause I am always looking for something in this mess. But one thing I know: by the artifacts you can see here - he paused to take a look around - wanderers from loads of civilizations and epochs walked through the nexus, which is, of course, not a pile of books, but something... indescrabible. I am working on a good definition since... actually, I can't recall since when.
-So how come you don't know who you are and all this things I asked and you didn't answer me?
The man looked sad. Suddenly, he had an a idea. He took a sword and laughed. He cut himself around the thumb.
-Are you out of your mind? You cut yourself... - but when Ewan looked, there was no cut where there should have been a deep one - how... how did you... how did you do that?
-My dear... check your watch, you'll undertand.

Ewan checked his pocket watch, heritage from his grandfather, as all good pocket watches certainly were. The pointers were not idle, they had disappeared! The man approached him and said:
-I probably beat my head when I arrived here, so, ironically... I have all that memories you can read in those books back there... but as certain wounds heal and certain not when you're in the nexus - my head never healed. Now that you are acquainted with our current predicament, come and help me skim through my books, will you? I bet we'll find something good... perhaps even a way out of here!