In a world permeated by social media and mobile communication, it seems impossible to ignore the persistent thoughts inside your own head long enough to really focus on a concept like gift giving — a single act of generosity tailored to a specific person for the sole purpose of making them ridiculously, tear-inducingly happy.

I’d like to believe most people would enjoy being able to come up with a gift of that caliber on an annual basis for every single person in their lives. Realistically, only those closest to you will be afforded thoughtful presents while the bulk of others will get something for the sake of giving them something. Giving a thoughtful gift to someone you don’t know very well can prove to be a difficult task.

That is, unless you are one of the more than 17,000 Reddit users in 90 different countries who participated in the site’s second Secret Santa gift exchange, which generated over $600,000 (and counting) in purchases and set a new world record, according to a post by Hueypriest on the Reddit blog.

Avid consumers of graphic fiction, it’s time for you to grab a small stack of comic books or a good graphic novel and head out to a public park, coffee shop or other crowded venue. Today is international “Read Comics In Public” day and coincidentally also the birthday of legendary artist Jack Kirby.

The point of reading comics in public is to help end the feeling of embarrassment associated with reading comic books, explains Editor of The Daily Cross Hatch Brian Heater, who came up with the idea.

“Take to the streets. Be proud. If someone asks what you’re reading, say, “a comic book” (the phrase “graphic novel is also acceptable, but let’s face it, it sort of defeats the whole purpose). Heck, lend them a book, if you’ve got an extra””what better way to make a new friend and convert a new reader?,” Heater writes on the Day’s official blog.

To further the cause, there’s also a flickr pool set up for people to snap photos of what they’re reading.

I’m going to go a step further than these guys and say everyone participating should do more than just read comics in public. Ripping a page out of Marvel Comics Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada’s book — once you finish reading those comic books in public, leave them for others to find and read. Of course for big time collectors, this might present a problem, but everyone has that stack of comics that they don’t want to file into their personal stash. Don’t throw them away (ever).

Read them in public, leave them in public.

Check out what the Geeks of Doom staff is reading below…