Love anything set in Scotland.My mother also likes to read books with a foreign background. She says she will never get to see these places, so reading about them is the next best thing.
She is a very special lady that donates her time by knitting and crocheting for neo-natal babies.
I think we read the same book - read one some timew ago that had a Steve and Stephen in it and thought the same thing - why put names in that would be confusing to readers?
I DO NOT deface books, turn down pages, lay them down somewhere open to the page I happen to be reading or anything of that nature.
Loaned some books out about 35 years ago and either did not get them back or got them back in poor condition - which made me start recording who borrowed them and only allowing a select few borrow my books.
Like you, I shorten or "nickname" or "alias" some cahracters names when too long or unable to pronounce, comprehend them.