Book Lovers Secret Recognition Club

When we are at the store or sitting in a restaurant, men will often walk by my husband and give him a knowing look. They will shake their heads and mumble numbers, or smile broadly and say, "Did you catch it Saturday?" often followed by a, "Roll Tide!"

It is as if all the sports lovers are in a secret recognition club.
They don't need introductions. They pick up in the middle of a conversation immediately, a conversation celebrating or lamenting their team's standing (this year it has been celebrating at my house). They pat each other on the back, or give a light punch in the arm.

It isn't just the Alabama fans. When he is near a fellow sports lover, Thomas will comment or ask a question about other teams he likes, or trash talk teams he doesn't like (read that: University of Florida).

The sports lovers can usually be identified by hats, shirts, or bumper stickers. Thomas isn't often without at least one of these identifying articles.

But, and this is when it gets weird, sometimes there will be no outward identifying label, and they still find each other. They must give off some aura visible only to other sports lovers. Not being a member of their secret recognition club, I can't really explain it to you. But I do know that it happens.

I am a book lover. It is sort of like a secret club, but we aren't very good at the social side of it. Unlike sports lovers, us book lovers often want to be left alone with our books.

So, although I will always sneak a look at someone's book on the bus or in a waiting room, I don't often interrupt the reader to discuss the book or give them a light punch in the arm. Really, it is best to never punch someone you don't know in the arm, light or otherwise.

The most social I usually get is offering a companionable smile when my book is noticed by the fellow reader.

Readers and book lovers need shirts, hats, and bumper stickers. Identifying articles that can enable us to be readily recognized as members of the book lovers club.

Something other than the book we are probably carrying in a bag or pocket.

Just once, I want to wear a Charlotte Brontë shirt, and have someone come up to me in a store and yell, "Jane Eyre!"

I want to see someone in an L. M. Montgomery hat, and strike up a conversation about Green Gables.

So many authors belong on shirts. Brennan Manning. Jan Karon. Linda Fairstein. Francine Rivers. Maya Angelou. J. K. Rowling. Anne Lamott. Jane Austen. I could keep adding names to this list all day.

What author or books would you want on a shirt or hat to identify yourself as part of the Book Lovers Secret Recognition Club?

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This idea has been floating around in my mind for a while, and I was reminded of it the other day when Amy Sullivan wrote about the shirts at Out of Print, which are awesome. I'm pretty sure I need all of them.