Digital Book World reported today that Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, is debuting a free Facebook app that will let readers read and share excerpts with friends as well as purchase books from allromanceebooks.com. The books available to browse/buy will change each month.

The article quoted Liate Stehlik, Senior Vice President and Publisher of William Morrow and Avon Books as saying, “The recent word-of-mouth phenomenon surrounding “Fifty Shades of Gray” confirms that women are talking about the books they are reading in equal measure. Thus, Avon worked to create a simple way for friends to connect on Facebook over the books they are most passionate about.”

Whether or not you’re into romance, my guess is we’ll see other imprints developing such apps. Is this something you would be interested in?

It says up to 20% of the book would be available to read for free. That’s a nice long excerpt. For me, free excerpts available for download on my Nook is it’s best feature, so I would love this Facebook app.

On my Nook you have the ability to link to friends, but once you friend someone they can see all of your ‘lendme’ books available in your library. I don’t necessarily like that feature. I may not want someone to see everything on my shelf. In Avon’s social reader, after you read an excerpt you have the option to show it in your News Feed or timeline so others can see you’ve read it. It’s a plus that it doesn’t show up automatically.

The downside of course is that this is only for Avon books. And if other publishers follow suit, there’ll be different apps for each publisher. Some of you may prefer something more all inclusive. Plus, you may feel more comfortable talking face to face about certain books than sharing it on your timeline for everyone to see.

What’s your opinion? For all interested, you can go to AvonSocialReader.com to get the app.