But now another step – albeit it a small step – has been taken. Google Books, which has, to the concern of the publishing industry, been scanning books into online digital formats at a furious rate, has started to make them available for download.

The company is starting small, and conservatively, with books that are really, really out of copyright, dating from the early 19th century and earlier, but hopefully the scheme will grow and spread.

Of course, publishers and bookstores are going to fear their sales will be hit, but the fact is that a 19th-century edition of some classic – while it might be useful as a taster, or for someone wanting to take a quick glance, or for those who really can't afford to buy their own copy – is not going to replace a modern edition for most readers. They'll want all of the footnotes and critical apparatus to help them through the text – the value the modern editions add.

And anything that makes more information available to more people around the world, for a cost approaching zero, has to be a good thing. It is fashionable these days to moan about an "information glut". I'd look at this the other way around. Throughout the history of the human race, we've suffered from an information deficit, from the fact that a few people have been able to keep to themselves much of the world's knowledge. Now we've taken one more step to ending the drought.

All that seems to be lacking is a listing of the books available – you have to search now by title and take pot luck. But if Google doesn't fill that particular hole, I'm sure that others will. If you know of anyone who's started a list of the books available, please let me know in the comments below.