Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Rating:
Summary: Pedantry at its best.
Review: Passions are strange and as vast as the spectrum. I can remember my mother washing and saving plastic baggies (zip-locks); I thought she was being provident, but perhaps it was her hobby, her passion. Regardless, we all have those idiosyncratic passions or, perhaps, pet peeves might better describe it. For Lynn Truss, a new British author, it is punctuation. Not grammar, as she is quick to point out, but punctuation.

As an aspiring writer, I can fully understand her pickiness but perhaps not her over-the-top swag. When my employees write letters or memos to clients, they always bring them into my office and ask me to "bleed on them," a reference to my red editing pen. So, Ms. Truss's (or should that be Truss'?) punctuation fixation hits home for me; consequently, EATS, SHOOTS& LEAVES was a book I had to have and absorb. Ms. Truss does not disappoint. Not only articulate, passionate, and intellectually polished, she has a biting wit that actually makes ESL very readable, even for those considered punctuation-challenged.

That said, Ms. Truss's ESL is punctuation pedantry at its best. Consider, if you will, Ms. Truss's example of the movie poster for "Two Weeks Notice," the Hugh Grant/Sandra Bullock film. Well, Ms. Truss couldn't consider whether this movie might be smashing or a bomb as she was too busy gnashing her teeth over the abuse of the apostrophe, or lack thereof in this case. Ms. Truss was mortified that anyone would let this title be published and displayed to the public without the apostrophe in the word "...Week's..." And while one maybe irritated or effacing of misplaced apostrophes-or other punctuation gaffes-in movie titles or store signs, it is quite hard to make up an example in which such a mistake might lead to a real ambiguity of meaning. Enter Lynn Truss to our collective rescue. Ms. Truss becomes outraged at such solecisms, extolling the lunacy of the Hugh Grant film title, bemoaning newspaper headlines with missing apostrophes, and even detailing how she has specifically walks into shops whose window signs are deficient in terms of punctuation.

Ms. Truss does provide the reader with excellent guidance beyond the apostrophe and comma (rather boring punctuation marks) when she discusses the attenuated history of other punctuation marks and their usages-dashes, brackets and other sexy marks. Ms. Truss makes a fervent plea for the preservation of our current system of punctuation as opposed to the blatantly nonintellectual and barbaric system prevalent in a world embracing email and blogs.

All in all, at barely 200 pages, ESL is a fun, quick read, particularly for those who are purists when it comes to grammar and punctuation. Moreover, it is a poignant reminder that, in a world obsessed with email, instant messaging, and blogging, in most cases, one must still possess the skills to craft a well-written letter in his or her chosen profession. It is a must in my profession and one that far too many professionals take for granted.

Rating:
Summary: Apostrophes And E-mails
Review: If you want to learn about punctuation, this is not the book for you. If you have ever tried to decipher the meaning from a poorly-punctuated e-mail, this book will have you laughing out loud. It is a very funny look at the (mis)use of punctuation at a time when there is an upsurge in the written word, albeit a digital one. Well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: The comedy of commas
Review: The best way to breeze into summer is to read "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by the witty British author, Lynne Truss. The punctuation lessons that one loved to hate growing up have remarkably been given a fresh coat of paint here. Anyone who has ever seen a sign or read a phrase of bad punctuation that stiffens the back or turns the head will revel in the author's examples of misplaced commas, apostrophes, colons, and other marks of punctuation. (I prefer the Oxford comma; but then, again, I'm an American)

The first half of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" is full of terrific illustrations of how punctuation changes the meanings of sentences and phrases. One of my favorites is "no dogs please" and the page on which Ms. Truss describes the decimation of Roman soldiers and tells of a sign that reads "Illiterates' Entrance" made me laugh out loud; something I rarely do while reading.

The more sober second half of the book is her effort to set down some guidelines for the use of various punctuation marks. The author is careful not to allow herself to be boxed in hard and fast by former usage. Like an up-to-date schoolmarm she is strict but kindly; one feels that a test for the reader might be unveiled at any moment.

How one can write a book like this with such warmth while needling much of the way is a testament to Ms. Truss. I highly recommend "Eats, Shoots and Leaves".

Rating:
Summary: Wow! I was looking for that!
Review: punctuation is not my "atuth".
English is my second language.
This books seems to me to be well organized and really worth of reading.
Maybe you do not care about punctuation... But- remember this:
thousand years ago the Church splitted for Western and Eastern and one of the reasons was...interpretation of a line in the Bible... and it happened because one small coma changed the whole meaing of the sentence.
It is worth to know how to use punctuation.
It is worth to use it well.
About that book- GOOD JOB.

Rating:
Summary: Misleading and not funny
Review: For Americans, _Eats, Shoots and Leaves_ has a serious, fundamental flaw: it models the English style of punctuation, which differs in a number of ways from the American style as exemplified in the Chicago Manual of Style. Those who follow Ms. Truss's teaching will, perhaps unknowingly, violate American rules of grammar, punctuation, and style. In addition, the book is not systematically arranged or complete, so it cannot reliably be used as a reference. Many of the set-in examples are purposely wrong, so that, by contrast with CMS, a reader cannot look to the examples for guidance. In my opinion, the author's attempted humor falls short, too. Karen Elizabeth Gordon's _The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed_ is funnier, better organized, and more complete. CMS is, for the most part, the definitive reference.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating read
Review: If you've ever found yourself reading the newspaper with a red pencil in hand, or if incorrect punctuation is like fingernails on a chalkboard, then this book is for you! If you're never really sure just where that comma goes, or when to use a semi-colon, this book is for you, too!

This book was really entertaining, plus it included the basic rules for the correct use of punctuation. The author includes LOTS of examples of both correct and incorrect usage. Just keep in mind that the author is British so some of the rules are slightly different. She generally points those differences out. Another book that I recommend is "He Never Called Again", along with "Good Grief."

Rating:
Summary: Is John Updike a Menace to Society?
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Let's hear it for grammar snobs!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Re: Publisher's mistake
Review: The jacket of the UK edition has the same punctuation as the American edition! Just look at Amazon UK.

Rating:
Summary: moans, laughs and understanding.
Review: I found this book very well written. It made much more sense of puncuation than I have previously known. The writer draws you in and appeals to the sense of humour. I found impelled to continue reading even though the subject wasn't one I found I had obessed over before. It was a very easy book to read, other than the more difficult quotes; which the author agrees are misleading. I have rated this book 3/5 as the subject is not appealing. I would read any further books by the same author.