My library has ebooks that you can get loaned to you for set periods of time, usually like 5 or so copies of a title, so 5 people could check it out at the same time for a couple of weeks. Might want to see if your local libraries have something similar. At mine (or any of the libraries in my county) you go to the website to check it out and then download it through amazon.
As to nominations I'm going to suggest REAMDE by Neal Stephenson (deliberate misspelling of read me file name). A description from the wikipedia page "The story, set in the present day, centers on the plight of a hostage and the ensuing efforts of family and new acquaintances, many of them associated with a fictional MMORPG, to rescue her as her various captors drag her about the globe. Topics covered range from online activities including gold farming and social networking to the criminal methods of the Russian mafia and Islamic terrorists. "