rent-a-book?

[Alex]

Not a bad idea, but the only reason I'm willing to deal with Netflix is because the envelopes are pretty standard sized and can fit in a normal mail box. With this I would have to deal with shipping boxes and go to the post office to mail a book back.

Too much hassle when I have a B&N across the street.

I don't know if they still do it, but when I was a kid the Fort Vancouver Regional Library System (severing Clark County, Washington) would mail books for free; also, there were no overdue fees and you didn't have to have a library card. It worked pretty well for them and I've never understood why more systems didn't go that way (when they went electronic in 1992 they did put library cards in place).