同事和同学之间经常会共享很多东西，可能是美食，可能是八卦新闻，也可能是一张CD、一部电影或者一本好书。有时候一本书太受欢迎，想要借阅的人太多，书的主人还得在几位借阅者中间协调先后。我想这大概算是BookCrossing最初形态吧。现在，这样的传阅行为已经扩展到陌生人之间啦，而且还有了自己的网站呢。

BookCrossing is defined as "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise." The term is derived from bookcrossing.com, a free online book club which began in order to encourage the practice, aiming to "make the whole world a library."

BookCrossing（漂书行动）指“将书本放于公共场所供人传阅并鼓励人们以相同方式传送书籍的行为”。这个说法来源于一个名为bookcrossing.com的免费在线图书俱乐部，该网站是漂书行动的发起者，其目标是“让全世界成为一个图书馆”。

The 'crossing' or exchanging of books may take any of a number of forms, including wild releasing books in public, direct swaps 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.

传送或交换书籍的形式有很多种，包括将书籍随意弃置在公共场所，与该网站的其他会员直接交换，或者通过一个“书籍传送带”以特定的顺序在某本书的期望读者中间传送。