Rating: Summary: step up for a rip off? Review: This is the "Emperor's Clothes" in action. Recall that old fable about the Emperor getting new "clothes", which were actually nothing, but no one dared tell him he was running around in his birthday suit? This book and its power to aid anyone is made fo the same cloth as those imaginary clothes. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink...Yanks, they are having one on you.If they really wanted to present a good work that actually helped, they could not take time to edit it for USA usage? Nope, they said, "Hey, the Yanks won't know the difference...." Shame on the publisher for this farce, shame on Amazon for going along with it.
Rating: Summary: Permission to Love Review: Truss warns readers that it is reviews just like these that lead to the proliferatioin of mispunctuation. This book is an enjoyable read for anyone who has ever been confused over just where to place a comma, or the proper use of the semicolon. Truss offers up interesting tales of punctuation history with a sense of glee that is almost catching. Grammar snobs may turn their noses up at this Bestseller, but for the generally confused masses, it at least sparks the debate, which is what I suspect Ms Truss wants more than anything - to see puncuatioin live on indefinitely.
Rating: Summary: Learn and Laugh Review: These people who are knocking this book have no sense of humor. Lynne Truss deserves a great deal of credit--she's written a useful book that's amusing as well as instructive, and is making a lot of money off of it. Good for her! Yes, it's British, but the difference between US and Brit punctuation is mostly insignificant; if some people get confused about quoted matter, that's a small price if they also learn something about commas and semicolons. Get real. Ordinary people don't buy the AP stylebook. If they buy this and read it, they'll probably learn something, and have a good time doing it.
Rating: Summary: P T Barnum strikes again Review: How easy it seems to be to fool people, with a book heavily hyped, about British punctuation and filled with errors and inconsistencies. Sort of amusing, but not very, and very, very wrong too much of the time. Kudos to the PR machine that created this - I only wish it had a sound basis in fact. Look to style guides, to Bill Walsh (The Elephants of Style), to Barbara Wallraff (Your Own Words), to the older Fowlers, to the AP Style Guide, the New York Times Style Guide. Save your money on this one - or give it to your favorite charity.
Rating: Summary: forgetaboutit!! Review: sorry, in this day and time, it's rather funny people are buying a book and pushing how great it is, when they do not know what is what, eh? Great for homeschooling? No, US homeschooling. Great for publishing? HUN? Don't think so. I know friends that are British and Canadian that write. They keep their WORD set to US spellchecker or their editors would scream. The best teachers I had in school were kind. A mad woman dashing about insulting poor shopkeepers (again with a different language maybe?) may make the writer feel superior, but it's disheartening that people would salute her for this lack of compassion and understanding for her fellow man. Some misses the big picture...no take that back, she get the BIG Bank Balance picture, while laughing at all of us.
Rating: Summary: oh please! line up for sheep call? Review: Wonder if the Brits would be so blind to rush out and buy a book that is on the American Income Taxes, just because some hiped-up press releases tell them it's great? I doubt it. Then why do I see Americas advising people here they MUST buy this book to learn to do it correctly? A book that cannot even get it correct on their own bookcover? It's zero-tolerance!!! Do they not bother to understand, this book was written for another country, that has many different punctuations? Hey...I've heard they have a super deal on the Brooklyn Bridge and a lot of land out there in Area 54.... This is so strange...
Rating: Summary: PT Barnum said it... Review: One born every minute. People in the United States are buying a British Grammar book and think they are learning something - one that is not so well done? Sorry, there are truly good works out there. This not one of them, not for UK, especially NOT for USA. Another case of flash over substance.
Rating: Summary: Not relevant for US Review: If they wanted to release this to US, they should have edited FOR the US. This will be teached things wrong, because there are differences. I can just image the fuss if the shoe was on the other foot and a book was released telling the British they were doing wrong and get with it by American standards. I suggest "The New Well Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed" by Karen Elizabeth Gordon (Author)
Rating: Summary: This book if NOT for American punctuation!!! Review: All these people saying how great this book is, only shows they are missing the boat. This is for BRITISH punctuation, which in many cases is NOT the same as American. You are much better off getting an AMERICAN book such "Your Own Words" by Barbara Wallraff. From the cover there are errors with this book...it's ZERO-TOLERANCE, and it keeps that up, yet she dares to set herself up as a standard? Worse, I think it the height of soddy manners to laugh at someone else's problems.
Rating: Summary: Self-concious about puncutation now Review: I had been seeing this odd title scattered throughout my Internet travels, but had no idea what it was. When I had a chance to get a free copy of the book, I jumped on it, wanting to know what it was all about. My friends have many reasons to think me odd and my choice of books is one of them. Only Douglas, they might think, could get excited about a book on punctuation. While I wholeheartedly agree that I am odd in many ways, many other people in Britain and America have found this book interesting as well. It is reassuring to know, sometimes, that I am not alone in my madness. While the subject matter, the use (and abuse) of punctuation such as apostrophes, commas, semicolons and the like, may seem dry to most people, Truss' (oh, goodness, I hope I placed that apostrophe correctly) writing style is light, humorous and dry as a Los Angeles summer. I regularly found myself laughing out loud at some of her examples of horrible punctuation, and then quietly wondering to myself if I had committed similar faux pas in my own writing over the years. Misplaced commas and apostrophes, abused or forgotten semicolons and colons not only make us look a bit foolish, but hamper the very communication we are desperately trying to achieve. A few years ago, Lynne Truss presented a show on BBC Radio 4, Cutting a Dash, where she developed many of the ideas and examples for this book. Only in the UK could you have support for a regular show about punctuation. You have to love the British sometimes. This edition for American audiences is exactly the same as the British version and might throw some American readers for a loop. Fear not, though. Even if you don't know what a "high street" is, or stumble over the concept of a "green grocer", the lessons, humor and fun of this book come through. If I ever had to study punctuation as a class again, I certainly hope this would be my textbook. In fact, this book might just help students find the fun, and usefulness, of the English language better than dry dissertations on the use of the semicolon. While Eats, Shoots & Leaves has left me a bit self-conscious about my own writing, the refresher course in punctuation will serve me well for years to come.
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