FYI: This should have been posted in the W/O Code forum ... oops.
I just added a some code to my forum that will allow users to list the ISBN of the book they're reading and it will display the cover art (works for movies and albums, too) by grabbing it from Amazon's server, writing it to a folder, and displaying it as an avatar. When clicked, it takes the user to Amazon's page where they can read the description of the book (to comply with Amazon's TOS, at least, but also because it is a good service). The members change the image over time and have really enjoyed this and they say it's much more meaningful to them than regular avatars.
It's basic ASP so I'm just giving the idea out to others -- almost every Snitz forum member knows ASP. If you need to see the code, I can supply instructions. There are only two pages you need to edit, one field you need to add to the db, and you need to include a saveimage.asp page that grabs the image from Amazon to save it to a write folder (probably one that you already have available). I use a hacky method by hardcoding a password in the url that I pass to the saveimage.asp page and I feel comfortable with it, but it's not for everyone.<