Hate-reading and the readers who love to hate

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While browsing the internet today I came across something which at first glance you'd think would send any writer into a tailspin of despair.
Apparently there is a faceless army of detractors in the audience just waiting to tear our work to pieces, before they have even looked at it.
They pounce on writing by authors they dislike, or on subjects they disagree with for the sheer pleasure of getting themselves wound up into a frenzy.
They have a name - “Hate-readers”.
Hate-reading is deliberately buying a newspaper or visiting a website with the express intention of getting annoyed and frustrated at what you know it is going to say.
If you click on a Facebook post or twitter comment just because you have a dislike for the author you are indulging in hate-reading.
If, as a staunch nationalist, you dash to pick up a paper praising the virtues of being part of the European Union, you are getting your fix.
Technology and the internet have allowed hate-readers to take their hobby one step further and publish their comments, a bit like heckling.
On any online news article, feature or review section there will be a string of comments which seem to tear the work’s creator apart just for the merry hell of it.
It is important to distinguish between reading something and taking part in an informed debate via comments with other readers, and hate-reading.
It is seeking out and targeting authors and subjects with the sole intention of disagreeing with every word.
Nasty, needy and desperate? - not at all.
As the great author and poet Oscar Wilde once commented “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about”.
And he was certainly the subject of his fair share of hate-reading.
It can be enormous fun, I have been guilty of it myself.
There’s nothing better than spotting the headline “Unemployed father of 10 rakes in £60,000 a year in benefits” and lapping it up as my blood pressure rises to dangerous levels.
And for any author or journalist on the receiving end it is surely the biggest compliment.
For someone to take the time and trouble to read through your “rubbish” so thoroughly and then pick it to bits extolling their horror, shock and disgust at your bare-faced cheek is flattery in the extreme.
There are the regulars that return every day with loyal reliability, literally making a full-time job of it.
Sadly, unlike the author of the work, they rarely reveal their true identity but shiftily peer from behind the safety of a pseudonym.
They frantically voice their distain at every word you have laid down to anyone who will lend a concerned ear.
And some real effort is put into the delivery of the dedicated hate-reader’s offering.
They vent anger, quote your words back at you, incite other people to join in the bashing and stalk you on social networking sites.
You wouldn’t believe there was so much dedication out there.
Today’s discovery led me to do something I have only done a few times before (no-one would believe me if I said it was the first time), I googled myself.
I couldn’t resist but have a trawl through some of the comments that might be floating around the web about me.
And to my delight there are some crackers:
“What an absolute disgrace to journalism the Daily Express is, with Nathan Rao dragging non stories out of nothing, again and again.”
- read it though didn’t you
“Another sensational scoop from ace Express reporter Nathan Rao!!!! Its going to be cold and icey in mid winter Hold the presses this is the biggest news since the scorching drought of last summer another Express exclusive .If we have a nice warm summer Ace reporter "scoop"Rao will be first to break the news.It saves us the trouble of looking out the window to see what the weather is doing.”
- nice, my only tip, I’d brush up the spelling and grammar before dishing the dirt though.
“You are a desperate and possibly deluded man, asking people to report sightings of snow.....”
-that one was tweeted to me today and I was so chuffed I re-tweeted it.
“ Nathan Rao is vying with ******** as to who can print the best misleading headline !!!!!”
- (identity of the other intended recipient to this one blanked out – I’m not so rude)
“What a pile of old cobblers he's served up for us today!
“Keep at it, Nathan - quality tosh of the highest order!”
This one was my favourite:
“Come on, everyone : it's time we formed a Nathan Rao Appreciation Society.
“This guy produces breathtaking codswallop and gives us all a good laugh. OK - it's ill informed rubbish but that's the charm of it!”
- please do.....I’ll join

I could go on and on...and on (really I could, it’s amazing).
Hate-reading? Never, it is praise in its highest form.
What journalist doesn’t want to push buttons and provoke discussion? - the truth sometimes hurts.
I say bring it on.

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