Sticking a toe in the Web’s water, book publishing giant HarperCollins starts to offer some of its content free, in the hope of enticing people to buy books:

“It’s like taking the shrink wrap off a book,” said Jane Friedman, chief executive of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide. “The best way to sell books is to have the consumer be able to read some of that content.”

Starting Monday, readers who log on to www.harpercollins.com will be able to see the entire contents of “The Witch of Portobello” by Mr. Coelho; “Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes and Making the Impossible Easy” by Mr. Irvine; “I Dream in Blue: Life, Death and the New York Giants” by Roger Director; “The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President: Who the Candidates Are, Where They Come from and How You Can Choose” by Mark Halperin; and “Warriors: Into the Wild” the first volume in a children’s series by Erin Hunter.

HarperCollins also plans to upload a different title by Mr. Coelho each month for the rest of the year.

I’ve been listening to the give-it-away-free gospel for a while now.  Unlike the Archbishop of Canterbury, I wouldn’t say it’s unavoidable. And of course I wouldn’t want to draw any parallels here—I’m only making a lame joke.

But I think this is a step in the right direction: namely, into an embrace by the oldest of old media of the brave new media world. The future of books (whatever form they take and whatever platform they’re offered on)—and the future of stories and narrative and of all written “content”—is very bright. We’ve just got to move forward to meet it.

Bravo.