If you love to read, this has inevitably happened to you at least once in your life. You find a book that looks interesting. You take it to the register to pay for it, and suddenly find judging eyes pointed your way. Once again, a cashier has decided to judge you for your taste in literature.

Isn't it annoying? To be so excited to read a book, excited enough to spend your hard earned money on it, and have one person ruin it. Well, it happened to me again last week, and for once I want to say something about it.

Usually, when I get that judging stare, it's because I'm buying smut. I'm just going to call a spade a spade because what I buy is absolutely smut. I'm not going to defend my taste in literature by trying to call it romance or say it's a present for someone. It's smut, and I enjoy reading it.

It's not hard to spot either. There's usually a beefy, topless man on the front with a very sexual sounding title in fancy script. The cashier sees the topless man and suddenly I've gone from normal customer to pervert in their estimation. There are usually no comments that accompany the stare when it's a cashier, but it's not just cashiers that judge either.

The comments usually come from strangers in public. To the man sitting beside me waiting for a haircut, it's none of your business whether or not I'm "hard up." To my classmate, no this book does not mean I'm not happy with my fiance. To the random guy in the library, no I'm not craving "a good time." To the customer who catches me heading for a break, why would you ever think it's okay to see the book and say that someday I'll find love?!?

It's a book. It makes me happy. I don't have to defend what I read to anyone, but I'd like to ask everyone out there to think before you speak and before you judge.