Additional information:
こと好き and こと嫌い for saying you like and dislike something, are basic examples of the tendency of Japanese to express things more politely through indirectness. Saying that you dislike the "concept" (thing) of something/someone rather than simply saying it outright, is more respectful due to being less direct. Think of it as the difference in English between "I hate you!" as opposed to "I hate the concept/embodiment/whatever of you!"
Difference between こと and の as nominalizers:
こと conveys less empathy and more apathy than の. This is thought to be due to the fact that in Japanese the nasal "n" is more personal, subjective, and orientated to the speaker by the sound alone, whereas the velar "k" is more distant, cold, and apathetical.
Thus こと is used for things that you're less directly involved in, and の for things you have direct relation, experience etc. too.
IE:
絵本を書くことは難しい = it is difficult to write a picture book
絵本を書くのは難しい ＝ it is difficult to write a picture book
What's the difference in Japanese then, you ask? Well, since こと is more distant and apathetical, it simply express "the act of writing a picture book is difficult" without the speaker being actually emotionally or physically attached to the action, as if it's a cold hard fact. When の is used, however, it expresses that the speaker is personally related to the act of writing a child's book. Maybe he's writing one himself. Maybe his family does it. Whatever the case, when の is used it's no longer simply a lifeless bare-bones statement, it is something the speaker is INVOLVED with. There's empathy, attachment.
For this reason verbs tend to take either こと or の.
Examples from Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, with my own explanations:
僕は静江が泳ぐのを見る = I was watching Shizue swim.
When you see something you're directly participating in it, it's not a cold, distant action, so you cannot use こと, but have to use の.
お母さんがこんなに心配しているのが分からないの？ = Don't you understand that your mom is really worried?
Not only is 分かる an action you're directly involved in, but this is your MOM worrying, you empathize with it, it isn't simply a cold fact from a textbook. So it takes の for the nominalizer.
ジェーンはビルが洗濯するのを手伝った = Jane helped Bill do laundry.
Jane is helping Bill, and is thereby directly involving herself in the action, so it has to use の.
この町でいい音楽を聞くことが出来る = I can listen to good music in this town.
You'll learn "verb + ことが出来る" as a grammar point of it's own, but the reason you use こと for that grammar point is because you're simply stating, "I can do X action" where it's just a general, objective fact, thus taking こと
見ることは信じる事だ = to see is to believe
This is an objective, general statement again, stating that X action = Y action, and thus takes こと rather than の as there is no direct empathy or perception of the speaker, it's just a cold statement.
Now you might be thinking, "Ah, but the empathy/involvement of the speaker is subjective to the situation, is it not?" and you are right. However, basic grammatical formations like all those example sentences are set in stone. If you replace の with こと they simply become ungrammatical regardless of context due to the design of the language. The only exception is in the sentence about the mother worrying. If one nominalized that with こと rather than の it is technically grammatically plausible. But it defies the language and reeks of WRONGNESS because of the simple cultural and psychologically fact that it is your mother, and the thought of a mother's worrying being presented as a simple fact you have no empathy or relation towards just feels so wrong that even in the plausible context of a sociopathic serial killer saying it, gramatically it still feels off.
Edited: 2010-09-21, 10:34 am
the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series is what I personally use for all my explanations to students, since it's the most detailed resource I've come across so far.
