I too like it that English is a lingua franca, but I hate it when people forget that there are still A LOT of people who can't speak it (or understand it). And if we forget about books for a second, I think it shows common courtesy if you learn a few words of the language of a country you're going to. You don't need to be fluent, but the locals appreciate it. I find it curious most of our foreign students are afraid of speaking Finnish even though some of them speak it so well. And there are so many things in other languages that English doesn't have, so many cultural things that if you try to replace them with English translations, it just doesn't work. People really should step out of their comfort zone and check books that were written in other languages than English (if their native tongue is English, that is).

I took a quick look at that readtheworld project and wow, I'm sad I missed it. Any chance they'd start another one next year? Because I would love to do something like that, it would be so much fun.