41. Four Letters of Love, by Niall Williams

Wives create their husbands. They begin with that rough raw material, that blundering, well-meaning and handsome youthfulness they have fallen in love with, and then commence the forty years of unstinting labour it takes to make the man with whom they can live.

38. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie
This is the most densely verbose, intricate and complex book I have read by that most densely verbose, intricate and complex author, Salman Rushdie. I first read it ten years ago on a crap holiday in Portugal, and it was the sole redeeming feature of the entire week, which gave it automatic status as my favourite book ever. I admit now that this was something of an over-reaction, but also acknowledge what I have recently learned, which is that I am no longer wowed by things that are not new. It’s still a good solid book.
In the story, two children who are born at the midnight moment that India becomes an independent nation, are swapped at birth; what follows is a mystical exploration of nature versus nurture, animated by characters with special powers, magic and miracles, deformity and cucumbers. Oh yes, this is a book in which the uborka has a special place.
4/5

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A friend of the Doctor recently acquainted me with MyBookYourBook.

This is a book exchange service, whereby you pay a fee, and offer ten of your own books to the pool. You can then choose up to five books per month, and to get hold of one of these, you have to send an SAE to the person currently holding that book. Books offered must be deemed suitable according to the terms and conditions, and padded envelopes can be ordered from the website, again for a fee.

The flaws?
Obviously it’s a business, hence the fee; but this could easily be done on a non-profit basis. At least it is less haphazard than book-crossing, which has always appealed to me, although I’ve never done anything about it.

On top of the fee, you have to provide the SAE every time you require a book – so that’s £2 per book. If you regularly buy your books in charity shops, you are already contributing to a book-recycling scheme, for a lower price AND for charity.

So far the list of books is not that great. Of course if it takes off, it will improve, but there’s no guarantee that the other book-offerers will be like-minded readers, and so the Rushdies and the de Berniereses may never appear on the list.

I tried to set up a book-swap scheme on Uborka, and only ever managed to get rid of one book: Room At The Top by John Braine, which Stuart kindly took off my hands in return for his copy of Vile Bodies, by Evelyn Waugh.