On re-reading books...Bilgewater

I am a huge fan of re-reading books...not just once either - my favourite books have been read and re-read countless times over the years...

This is partly, I admit, due to having a terrible memory...

But notwithstanding that, and my general flakiness, something new speaks to me from a really good book EVERY time I pick it off the shelves, dust it down and settle back with a sigh of relief to lose myself in its world...

Take Bilgewater for example...I have been extolling the magnificence of this little novel and the wondrousness of its heroine, Marigold Green (Bill's daughter, aka Bilgewater) for probably twenty years.

This week I re-read it. Again. Loved it. Again.

And this popped up:

'It was just a series of things that were important and beautiful and namelessly good, an experience proof against nostalgia, proof against the distortion of time. An experience one is the better for having had even when the brain grows soft and slow and can't remember whether it has just locked the door or was just about to do so. Or if not why not, or if so why...'

Sorely in need of more of those moments atm...