Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

How does a book about how to use commas and colons properly have lodged itself at No 1 on bestseller lists? Maybe Lynne Truss' books success shows that it is not just a few reactionaries who care. Truss agrees it's selling off the internet and stickler-types probably don't do their shopping on the internet. Lynne Truss wonders if there might be readers whose higher education has given them at least a guilty conscience about what they have not been taught, suddenly thinking that perhaps it does matter and I wouldn't mind knowing this stuff. Those copies stacked in Waterstone's might show that there are plenty of people who want to be, as Lynne Truss puts it, 'virtuous'.

While Truss says that 'despair' gave this book its impetus, she does not sound despairing either in print or in person. The title itself is a joke, about an irate panda who walks into a cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun and fires two shots into the air. The waiter finds the explanation for this erratic behavior in a badly punctuated wildlife manual which the bear leaves behind: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! tells you the rules, but is also full of jokes and anecdotes. It is a sort of celebration of punctuation. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way. She speaks of the delights of the semi-colon with relish. She has listened to the man from the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, it exists) but does not sound like a member of any such group. "I was so worried when I wrote the book that people would assume that anyone interested in this subject would be small-minded". --Lynne Truss.

I don't really know where punctuation is going. But this is a very good moment to look at it and see what state it's in. The internet and emails have come along very conveniently for people who didn't learn punctuation and can therefore get by. Punctuation helps give rhythm and a tone of voice to writing, and Truss thinks it no accident that readers of emails often find it difficult to pick up the tone of the person who's written it, with all those dashes. The grace notes get lopped off and it becomes very bald. So people start needing exclamation marks and capital letters, desperately trying to express a tone of voice.

A joy to read (1/1 people found this helpful)

This book was a joy to read for me, and it was also research at the same time. I never realized how many punctuation errors people make. Some of these errors drive me crazy, too. I can't stand when people confuse their, there, and they're. This book was good research for me because I wrote my own book about English grammar, but only one chapter deals with punctuation.

Brandon Simpson

I now know I'm not alone... (0/0 people found this helpful)

By my title, I mean that I know there are other people out there who care about punctuation as much as I do! Truss writes with passion, verve and clarity about the decline in punctuation and the repercussions of this often infuriating issue. I read it from cover to cover in a few days and enjoyed her witty (often self-deprecating) humour and the illustrative examples of awful punctuation peppered throughout the book. Great for those with an interest in language, or simply anybody who wishes to take pride in the English language and its delightful nuances that are granted by correctly applied punctuation!

In relation to another reviewer's comments, this isn't a reference book and doesn't claim to be one; if you're after a desktop reference for punctuation then look elsewhere.

An island of hope in a wasteland of despair (1/1 people found this helpful)

The tragedy of this book is that it is read by people who care about punctuation but ignored by those who need it. It has also made me paranoid about everything I write (were there any mistakes in this review?).

Needs an index. (1/2 people found this helpful)

My title says it all really. Quite a good read but a rubbish reference manual as it is nearly impossible to look things up in it.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Lynne Truss

Reader Reviews:

You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way (1/1 people found this helpful)

A joy to read (1/1 people found this helpful)

I now know I'm not alone... (0/0 people found this helpful)

An island of hope in a wasteland of despair (1/1 people found this helpful)

Needs an index. (1/2 people found this helpful)

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