Happy Pynchon in Public Day!

Could it be a conspiracy?

More like fandom. Today is Thomas Pynchon’s birthday -- his 77th -- and to celebrate the author’s work, a faithful reader has dubbed May 8 Pynchon in Public Day.

It’s not an attempt to draw the famously reclusive writer out into the spotlight. Founder John Dee, who held the first Pynchon in Public Day in 2011 in Britain, asks people to take their Pynchon books out into the world and read them.

“Pynchon is not that well known in the U.K.,” Dee told me by email last year. “He is known in academic circles but not so much by the general reading public. The people I meet might know the name, that he is reclusive and difficult to read, but no more.”

Reclusive, difficult to read -- all true. But here in the U.S. that has earned Pynchon a special place in (some) readers’ hearts. Like former National Endowment for the Arts literature director David Kipen, who once told The Times, “Pynchon’s my touchstone. I’m his fan like I’m a Dodger fan: I root for him, find him endlessly fascinating and feel a purely unearned pride that he has the best record in the league. I’d say I follow Pynchon, but that might make him nervous.”

He added, “If I were stranded on a desert island and could only take two books with me, I’d take two copies of ‘Gravity’s Rainbow.’ One might get wet.”

Pynchon in Public Day started out small, but things get around in the Internet age (which Pynchon explored in his 2013 novel “Bleeding Edge”). The muted post-horn from Pynchon’s “The Crying of Lot 49,” the Trystero symbol, has been cropping up all over. In addition to Britain, pop-up Pynchon promotions and readings have been found in Greece, Germany, Russia, and of course, the U.S. -- where even “Mad Men” character Pete Campbell reads Pynchon.

So, Pynchon fans: Read ‘em if you got ‘em.