"Wouldn't it be great if there were some kind of Netflix for books? You could just, like, borrow a book and then give it back when you were done reading it so someone else could read it."

"Dude, it's called a library. "

There are public libraries in almost every part of the United States and Europe. They are typically free to sign up, free to check out materials, and have strong privacy controls so that your reading habits are less likely to be exploited. Many libraries provide magazines, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray, and even streaming media in addition to printed books. A good number provide online reservation systems so that you don't need to spend time searching the shelves. You may need to wait a while for popular new releases to become available, but for a service that is both free and convenient, that's a small price to pay.

Some of my fondest childhood memories come from spending time in the library digging through Asterix and Tintin books.

The Seattle Public Library website is at http://www.spl.org/. There's likely to be an equivalent for the libraries in your area.