Customer Reviews

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tollerance Approach to Punctuation

5 star:		(126)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I loved this book. Grammar is hardly something the normal person would think to be interesting, especially in book form. This is truely one of a kind. Lynne Truss has such a great way with witty and intelligent humor. I would recommend it to anyone! Besides, I've just about had it with seeing grammar mistakes all over the place.

I remember a long time ago seeing a headline in a paper that read "Milk Drinkers Turning to Powder." This is the kind of English that really sets off Lynne Truss. I saw an interview with her on television, and while she had a sense of humor, and that is apparent from the book, she also had a very serious side, and I was sure that for certain grammatical errors she would not hesitate to shoot and leave!

The title of this book comes from the kind of problem that people can encounter in the difference between spoken language and written language. Being a fan of poetry, I am very aware of the difference between spoken words and written words on the page, and what a difference simple intonations and voice changes can make. Punctuation and spelling can make a big difference, too. Is it here, or hear? Here here! or Hear! Hear! There are lots of arguments for the need for correct grammar and punctuation, and there are lots of pieces in here that talk about the history and misuse in the past of punctuation in key times.

This is a very British book in many senses, and some of the American rules of grammar are different, but it is still fun to read and see what happens with the differences. Truss has a dry wit and this comes through most of the time fairly well. There were times I did laugh quite a bit, and times I copied things down to email to friends.

This is a fun book. You won't want to leave it behind, eating or shooting.

I read the British version of this book first, and I have to say, it's funnier in its "original language." I never thought a book on punctuation would be funny, but after reading an excerpt in a British newspaper, I made a special trip out to buy it. I was laughing out loud the whole way home while reading it on the plane.

I suppose the book is not funny if you don't think there's anything wrong with misplaced punctuation, but if you do, this book is a treat!

As a book publisher, it is wonderful to see a book on punctuation at the top of Amazon'a list. Must be more writers out there than we thought.

Eric Bollinger
McKenna Publishing Group
Publisher of Jim Woods' "Two Dozen Lessons From an Editor"

As one who was taught grammar the old-fashioned way by diagramming sentences in the fifth grade, I cringe every time I see such gems as "Every dog has it's day", signs advertising "apple's" and "orange's", the interminable misuse of their, there and they're, people acting like they never heard of past participles (a sign in a community center near my office exhorts the kids to "Stay strong, stay focus"), and the confusion of words that sound alike but mean totally different things, such as residents and residence. Do residence live in the residents? Believe it or not, I've actually seen this written.

One wonders if they actually teach grammar in the schools any more. Given some of the notes I've read written by teachers to parents, it's doubtful. I've seen teachers whose own grammar skills were so poor they wouldn't recognize the most flagrant grammatical errors if they were written in letters four inches high. So Lynne Truss's book is long overdue for the hordes (not hoards) of the grammar-impaired. (Yes, simply moving or omitting a comma can totally change the meaning of a sentence. Try these three: "Eats, shoots and leaves"; "Eats shoots and leaves", and "Eats shoots, and leaves".)

The book is short, concise and very much to the point. Unfortunately, it will probably be read and enjoyed only by those who already get the joke in the title.

This was an absolutely delightful read. I felt as tho' Ms Truss had popped in for a visit, and we were having a totally enjoyable discussion about those minor (and not so minor) annoyances one encounters when reading newspapers, signs, etc., or when one has to read more than once to make sense of a particular phrase. It is not a nitty-picky book, just an "oh! yes! - and did you see such-and-such?" type of chat.
Neither Ms Truss nor I are obsessed with punctuation, but every once in a while, one does become upset and wonders if some editor was asleep at the wheel.
I am really glad this book has just been launched in Canada, and I would say that her examples are equally applicable to the UK, the USofA, Canada, and probably wherever English is written.

I picked this book up after seeing the book shoot up the best seller list. I figured if a book on punctuation could be a number one best seller, then I should probably give it a read; and I am happy to report that I was not disappointed.

The author does a great job of writing about punctuation and explaining why certain things (like the missing comma in Two Weeks Notice) drive her batty. Batty to the point of advocating those legions of punctuation devotees get themselves sets of commas and apostrophes, and enter into the world to rid it of all the bad grammar that is taking place out there.

For anyone who has been annoyed to see things spelt incorrectly or witnessed first hand the poor use of grammar that gets put on street signs and advertisement, this book is definitely up your alley. And for those of us, like me, who just want a good comical read this book is definitely a must have too.

"Eats, Shoots & Leaves" is not a grammar guide per se, as it doesn't really teach the basics of punctuation. Instead, it's a grammarians dream come true - an enjoyable and illuminating discussion of the history and importance of punctuation (Hmmmm, did I use that dash correctly?). Lovers of punctuation have been decrying the use of "netspeak" with no or minimal punctuation. Accordingly, Truss wrote this engaging book with the rallying cry: "Sticklers unite!" However, Truss does not simply attack the web; indeed, she asserts that text messaging and email have made reading more important than it has been of late. However, to paraphrase Bill Clinton, "It's the punctuation stupid!"

Truss's dry British wit (e.g., talking about wanting to marry the inventor of the colon) is used to great effect in her writing. And amusing vignettes are peppered through the text, including the introduction of the "interrobang" as well as the spread of the "Strukenwhite" virus. She even manages to make punctuation seem, well, sexy. If you've ever found yourself in a spirited debate about the Oxford comma (i.e., the second comma in the phrase "red, white, and blue"), then you'll likely enjoy this book.

Some reviewers have asserted that American readers may be a bit lost; however, Truss is careful about pointing out American versus British punctuation uses. I was never confused. Overall, this book is delightful - most highly recommended.

I don't normally read books on grammar or writing but maybe I ought to since this one was so interesting and entertaining. Some people I see have complaints about some of the inconsistencies in the grammar Truss herself uses. I don't know about that. I can say she has done a tremendous service to get the public talking about the nuts and bolts of the English language. That's amazing!

If you're looking for a powerfully good novel to read, I can vouch for A SECRET WORD, AMAGANSETT, and BIRTH OF VENUS.

Readers, check your reaction to the following sentence:

Lynne Truss, an English grammarian is bloody fed up with sloppy punctuation.

Does that sentence leave you feeling confused, irritated, or angry? Do you feel you have to second-guess the author of the sentence, forced to ascertain whether s/he was writing to Lynne Truss or about Ms. Truss?

But that sort of thing is almost the norm these days, on both sides of the Atlantic. Of course, we Americans have been struggling for years with FRESH DONUT'S DAILY and Your Server: "MILLY" -- not to mention the archy-and-mehitabel school of e-mail that neither capitalizes nor punctuates and reading through this kind of sentence really gets confusing i think it does at least do you too?

Turns out that even the British--including the elite "Oxbridge" inteligentsia--are wildly ignorant of punctuation's rules and standards. Lynne Truss, an English grammarian and author of EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES, is bloody fed up with it! So she wrote this handy little book that is ever-so-correct but not condescending, sometimes savage but not silly, full of mission and totally without mush.

Think of Truss as punctuation's own Miss Manners, a combination of leather and lace, with maybe a bit more emphasis on the leather. (She advocates forming possees to paint out incorrect apostrophes in movie placards.) But her examples of bad punctuation serve a purpose: bad punctuation distorts meaning. EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES includes numerous hilarious backfires of punctuation -- statements and missives that use the exact same words but convey totally opposite messages due to inappropriate punctuation.

Do commas go where they go for breathing, as the do-it-naturally school of non-grammar so many of us were exposed to would have it? Or were they for Medieval chanting or, more analytically, for grammar? Truss explains that it's a mish-mosh of all three, and proceeds to make useful sense of it all. Along the way she confesses she would have gladly borne the children of the 15th-Century Italian typographer who invented Italics and the forward-slash.

With its blend of high dudgeon and helpfulness, Truss steers the reader through the shoals of possession and apostrophes, quotations (British use is a bit differerent from North American, but only a bit, and she notes the difference), the useful if forlorn semicolon, the mighty colon, the bold and (mea culpa) overused dash and other interrupters like parenthesees and commas.

It's important to note that Truss, while something of a true believer, is a believer who lives in the 21st Century. She does not advocate turning back the clock to the 1906 version of Fowler's MODERN ENGLISH USAGE; she is not a snob; she does not overwhelm us with technical terms of grammar and punctuation for their own sake. Just good, common-sense English prescriptive lessons in grammar. People who know they don't know their stuff will learn the right stuff there. People who felt that "the rules" have somehow become archaic in the last thirty years will be happy to see that there are still rules, and while they have become more fluid and pragmatic, they haven't changed inordinately. "It's" still means "It is" and "Its" is still a possessive: "It's a wise publisher that knows its public," say.

Best of all, the teaching is conveyed with wit, bite, and in a snappy tome easy to carry and inexpensive. I'm a former English teacher and I couldn't help but learn and laugh. Highly recommended.

Oh, John Updike? He uses comma faults all that time, that's a sentence like this that splices main clauses together with a comma, maybe using semicolons or starting a new sentence would be better. For us mere mortals, though, standard punctuation fits the norm: once we become world-famous, then we can punctuate at will.