Book swapping or book exchange is the practice of a swap of books involving one person and another. Practiced involving book friends, groups, and colleagues at work, it gives an economical way for people to exchange books, observe about new books and get a new book to read without having to pay. Because swaps take place between individuals, without central distribution or warehousing, and without the copyright owner making a profit, the practice has been compared to peer to peer systems like Bittorrent-- except that hard-copy original analog objects are exchanged or swapped.