Rating: 
Summary: I never knew punctuation could be so interesting
Review: Eats Shoots & Leaves is a very helpful reference book especially if you have to write a lot of papers for school.
This book has shown me a former student how much I did not know about punctuation and that is why I enjoyed it. I thought that an apostrophe only indicated possession. I also learned that an apostrophe can be used to indicate time or quantity or the omission of letters. Lynne Truss explains the functions and usage of common punctuation marks like the apostrophe, comma, semicolon, and colon very clearly. I really did not know how a semicolon or colon could be used. A semicolon shows the reader the relationship between 2 different statements. Colons separate subtitles from main titles in books or movies. She provides the reader with sentences with the punctuation marks in the right place. I really appreciated seeing how they worked in sentences. There are 17 rules about how a comma is used. Commas are not only used in lists and to join sentences. They are also used to separate clauses to make reading easier and are used before direct speech. The information in this book may sound basic to some people, but I found it pretty interesting. This book will make me a better writer and a better observer when I see a misuse of punctuation. Lynne Truss points out how punctuation can be misused everywhere on movie posters and even everyday email. Eats, Shoots and Leaves is a wonderful written book.
Rating: 
Summary: Cute for the UK, useless for the US
Review: I am sorry that I followed the hype in the UK when this came out. It is a cute read for British English but gets tiresome fast. The Sunday NY Times review put it better than I could -too late - I'd bought it - the book is unfunny and, to my dismay, unhelpful - in fact, wrong, since it is British punctuation and of little help in the US. I'll save it for my next trip to the UK. While nice to punctuate properly, it's better to have something to say and say it with skill and grace.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for a quick laugh, but not much more...
Review: It's a fun book, good for a quick read through, and a chuckle or two. But it wears thin after a while, and doesn't serve any other purpose than providing a few jokes. There have been other books like this, and they all tend to work the same way - use a few weird examples of grammar or punctuation, try to be funny, but they only really preach to the choir - if you don't know about punctuation, this book will probably not do much for you. And it's not the kind of book you can refer back to. Also, unless the US edition has been edited (I read the UK edition), readers unfamiliar with UK English might be a bit perplexed at times.
Rating:
Summary: Error in title
Review: "The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" should be "The Zero-Tolerance Approach to Punctuation."
Rating:
Summary: Well done but ...
Review: This book is well written and depending upon who one considers the "expert" in such things, well edited. That said though, has the world really become such a nit-picking place that we need to split hairs-- much less infinitives? -- over whether the comma or mysterious semicolon goes here or there? Clearly Kafka would have found a book such as this quite an annoyance. Does that make the substance of his work any less valid? Moreover, the deeper reality is that perfectly valid thoughts and feelings can be expressed in a number of ways depending upon how the individual writing them opts to punctuate. Allowing those less-schooled than those from Eton to express ourselves by sometimes applying creativity in our punctuation
efforts, even though doing so just might stretch the rules, seems to me the very stuff of which the ever-developing tool that we call language is made of. For those that fear being misunderstood because they might have erred in the "perfect" application of classic British punctuation rules, this is a good work. For those that feel within them the freedom to express themslves as they see fit, ESL serves as a solid reference and a great bookshelf item to hold in reserve for those times when you you write to your more rigid British friends.
Rating:
Summary: USA is a Literary Laughingstock! Just read this!
Review: As trivial and nuisancesome (sp?) as punctuation may be considered, it is absolutely a reflection of the intelligence and credibility of its composer.
Far too many people these days have lost the art of communication as evidenced by the growing trend of cell phone text messaging.
Some may resent the author of this book for being British but England is where we get our English from n'est ce pas? (that's French)While travelling in Europe recently, I mentioned to an acquaintance that I spoke English, "No you don't", he corrected me, "you speak American". I was chagrined but it got me to thinking, is it that noticeable?
Which is the essential question all Americans must ask themselves, does my writing/speaking reflect negatively upon how I'm perceived by the world at large? How does this affect my day to day life?
Consider our President George W. Bush. Last night he held a press conference where I counted numerous stumbles over words, i.e. he said "instigates" when he meant "indicates" and all I could think is that the rest of the world must think USA is illiterate.
I think this book will definitely help the reader get a firmer grasp on the value of words, specifically the right words placed in the right context to communicate precisely what we wish to say. Thankfully so, since its coming is long overdue.
Rating:
Summary: Speaking Out to Preserve Proper Punctuation
Review: This book has great punctuation rules for the UK, and if you are an author, no doubt you will have an editor to make sure your punctuation is perfect. Many people do look at your grammar, spelling and punctuation, especially if you are writing an on-line newsletter, e-zine, or articles for on-line or print publication. It mars (not the planet, substitute word could be spoils) your credibility as a writer to use improper grammar and punctuation. I think Lynn Truss would have quite a reaction while reading the spelling and language of a USA Chat Room. Depending upon your culture, different words DO have different meanings, and the writer that knows their audience would do well to make sure that their message is conveyed appropriately, with perfect grammar and punctuation. It is important to readers! Personally, from the title of the book, I thought the book was all about zero tolerance in schools, and our children's punctuation (attendance) not about grammatical punctuation.
Nevertheless it is a witty and entertaining read, by an author who cares about preserving proper punctuation and is passionate about her work. She is speaking out and helping people in the process, which is what matters most.
Barbara Rose, author of, 'Individual Power' and 'If God Was Like Man'
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't live up to title
Review: This work is a terrible disappointment. The text does not live up to the delightful title. First. The punctuation rules are for the UK and differ significantly from what is considered correct USA punctuation. Sadly, most readers will be ignorant of the distinction and spread such errors as placing periods and commas after closing quote marks (more-or-less the British system). The author was given a witty title, but counterbalances that with dull prose. She often contradicts herself by not following her own rules. She claims that the erudite New Yorker magazine adds an apostrophe to number plurals (1990's and not the correct 1990s). The actual perpetrator of this error is The New York Times. Enough said.
Rating:
Summary: Its a grate reed
Review: {This is trooly a grate book."I wish eye had it yeers ago." He said. I think I shood have finished... reeding it befour writing this gloweeng revyou/ I now have the confidense I need to be a righter miself?{
Rating:
Summary: It's not clever and it's not funny
Review: It is a good thing that a book on punctuation is a best-seller; it's just a pity it's this one. All the good work Lynne Truss does in conveying her message (viz., punctuation matters) is undone by her hectoring tone, dismal attempts at humour (made worse by a tendency to point out the punch-lines) and, in the final analysis, lack of credibility: having set out rules she then reverses over them, makes egregious appeals to authority and, every now and then, just gets things flat out wrong. You might forgive that were there any humility in her prose, but there isn't. The first rule of hubris is: if you're going to be a clever-clogs, make sure you're right, because readers won't cut you any slack if you're not. Lynne Truss isn't always right. A case in point: in her introduction, Truss states (rather presumptuously) on behalf of her fellow sticklers, "we got very worked up after 9/11 not because of Osama bin-Laden but because people on the radio kept saying "enormity" when they meant "magnitude", and we hate that". Now ignoring the curious impression this creates of Truss's value scheme, she is quite wrong to take umbrage here: "Enormity", in British English, means "extreme wickedness". The magnitude and the awfulness of an act of mass murder are closely correlated. So, even in British English, it is perfectly right to talk of the "enormity" of September 11. But if any of the voices Truss heard on the radio were American, they had another excuse. In American English enormity *does* mean "magnitude". Since Truss is so enamoured with appeals to authority, it is odd she didn't check that with the best authority on American English, Webster's dictionary. I should mention that I read English edition of this book. Given Truss's proclivities as regards the cultural heathen, it will be interesting to see whether her American sub-editors pluck up enough courage to point this out. When she does make them, Truss's appeals to authority are even more irritating, particularly where they contradict her own rules or justify her own errors: So, the author patiently explains that an apostrophe is required to indicate possession except in the case of a possessive pronoun (i.e., "mine", "yours", "his", "hers", "its", "ours" and "theirs"). Now, I had always wondered why a possessive "its" doesn't have an apostrophe, and this explains it nicely. But then Truss completely undermines her own rule and appeals to the authority of Virginia Woolf: "Someone wrote to say that my use of "one's" was wrong ("a common error"), and that it should be "ones". This is such rubbish that I refuse to argue about it. Go and tell Virginia Woolf it should be "A Room of Ones Own" and see how far you get." Virginia Woolf's been dead for over fifty years, so this is pretty tough to do. But it doesn't mean Virginia Woolf was right. And Truss fails explain why this is "such rubbish". Finally, even the book's title betrays the author's questionable sense of humour. I don't think she gets the joke. It has nothing to do with waiters or pistols (perhaps a maiden aunt told her that one?) and certainly doesn't need a "badly punctuated wildlife manual" to work, because it isn't a grammatical play; it's an oral one. The joke doesn't work when you write it down, precisely because of the ambiguous comma. You have to say it out loud (in spoken English, there is no punctuation at all). I hope they re-title the New Zealand edition of this book, because the local version of the joke (which employs a delightful expression from NZ English) is funnier: The Kiwi, it is said, is the most anti-social bird in the bush, and no-one likes to invite it to parties, because, if it turns up at all, it just eats roots and leaves. The joke's about shagging, Lynne.
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