BookCrossing

BookCrossing
Website title of bookcrossing.com
Available inMultilanguage
Websitebookcrossing.com
CommercialNo
RegistrationYes
LaunchedApril 21, 2001 (2001-04-21)
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A Bookcrossing in Leipzig southwest of Berlin, Germany, December 2009
Bookcrossing in Lyon northeast of Nîmes, France, May 2006
A Bookcrossing at Kozminski University in Warsaw, May 2019

BookCrossing (also known as BC, BCing or BXing) is defined as the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be 'caught' by others, who may then do likewise. The term is derived from bookcrossing.com, a free online book community which was founded in 2001 to encourage the practice, aiming to "make the whole world a library."

The "crossing" or exchanging of books may take any of a number of forms, including the 'wild-release' of a book in public places (when the receiver of the book is unknown), controlled release (when the receiver of the book is known) with other members of the websites, or "book rings" in which books travel in a set order to participants who want to read a certain book. The community aspect of BookCrossing.com has grown and expanded in ways which were not expected at the outset, in the form of blog or forum discussions, mailing lists, and holding annual conventions throughout the world.