Book Bashers

I am appalled at the number of people in this world who seem to derive pleasure from messing with other people's lives. Rather than using their time and energy to face up to their own problems (obviously, they have "issues") and deciding to do something positive to change their lives, they take out their anger and frustration on everyone else – online and offline. There are those who hack into computers, Facebook accounts, etc., instead of putting their computer skills to good use. There are scammers who make their living by taking advantage of unsuspecting victims, especially the elderly. And, there are book bashers. As my grandmother would say, “Shame on all of them!”

Book bashers can’t be pleased and I firmly believe they don’t want to be. I’m sure if they had reviewed “Gone with the Wind,” when it was first published, they’d have rated it a “1” and had horrible things to say about it. Book bashers go to sites like Amazon and write scathing reviews (usually with numerous spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors) for perfectly good books. I don’t think any intelligent reader would take them seriously. At least, I hope not. But you never know. Obviously, book bashers are miserable people who are determined to spread their misery in any way they can. As long as I live, I will never understand people like that.

Another thing I will never understand is why a person would bother to finish reading a book (assuming they do), much less review it, if they really thought it was that bad. Why waste your time reading and reviewing a book you don’t even like unless you get some kind of sick thrill from denigrating someone else’s hard work? 
“One man’s garbage is another man’s gold” and there’s a world of difference between constructive criticism and book bashing. But book bashers don't care about any of that.

Just my thoughts and opinions. What are yours?
Lesley Diehl suggested that everyone read this article. I did and it's great! Here's the link:
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/suwcharmananderson/2012/06/14/how-to-read-a-bad-review-advice-for-authors-and-buyers/