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

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

by Lynne Truss, Frank McCourt (Foreword by)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 47,892 ratings · 3,069 reviews

We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the Internet, in e-mail, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species.

In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English wa

...more

Hardcover, 209 pages

Published April 12th 2004 by Gotham (first published January 2nd 2003)

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Apr 06, 2012 Nataliya rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Grammar nerds and punctuation sticklers

Shelves: nonfiction, favorites, 2011-reads, writing-and-language

Bad punctuation can force an innocent animal to live outside the law. Now, instead of peacefully munching, it EATS, SHOOTS, and LEAVES.

I proudly consider myself a punctuation martyr. The setting is an ordinary Soviet elementary school, first grade. I am kicked out of the classroom and sent home with an angry note. My transgression - in my wide-eyed seven-year-old innocence I dared to correct my (very Soviet) teacher on her comma placement and a spelling mistake. This crime landed me on her "bl...more

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Sep 01, 2009 Ceridwen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, rule-britannia

Recently, the boy made a sign for the door of his bedroom that reads "Keep Out. Not for baby's." His spelling is largely self-taught, as he is not yet in kindergarten and I am a somewhat lazy parent-educator. This made me have a Noam Chomsky-ish melt-down about the concept of generative punctuation. Lord, is the grocer's comma innate? Is it mapped on our brains like the double negative? Am I really his mother?

This book has been sitting on my bedside table for no less than two years. I read it on...more Recently, the boy made a sign for the door of his bedroom that reads "Keep Out. Not for baby's." His spelling is largely self-taught, as he is not yet in kindergarten and I am a somewhat lazy parent-educator. This made me have a Noam Chomsky-ish melt-down about the concept of generative punctuation. Lord, is the grocer's comma innate? Is it mapped on our brains like the double negative? Am I really his mother?

This book has been sitting on my bedside table for no less than two years. I read it only when I can't be bothered to go in search of my real book or the book with which I'm cheating on my real book. For some reason, I don't think of this book that fondly when I'm not reading it, and then I'm pleasantly surprised whenever I pick it up again. But I have this jarring sensation when I read it, akin to the feeling I get when I read articles about neuroscience: holy buckets, I'm using my brain to think about my brain! She's using punctuation in a book about punctuation. Hey, don't bogart that.

This book makes me feel weird because I don't think of myself as a stickler. I am both lazy and exuberant when it comes to punctuation. I have an unfortunate love affair with the semi-colon; it cannot be helped. I also overuse parentheses because I think they are funny. (I tried, and failed, to not type a parenthetical comment here; oh crap, and there's the semi-colon.) My comma use borders on the Henry Jamesish. Why make simple declarative statements when things can be jammed together into one enormous run-on sentence, comma splices everywhere, and...my word, what has she done with the verb? This is the kind of writing this book provokes from me, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.

When I was living in a dorm my first year of school, the housekeeper would put up missives with the most tortured punctuation all over the building. She was a kindly women, older, and cleaned up our crap for probably not much more year than was required for tuition. (Unsurprisingly, I only spent a year at this institution.) Regularly, jerk students would correct her signs and laugh about how bad the punctuation was – and it truly was bad. This has always bothered me. Of course good punctuation provides a clarity of expression when attempting to convey a clarity of ideas. Of course. But sometimes you should just pick up your fucking towel's, jackholes, regardless of whether they possess anything.

It was a relatively painless way to brush up on the punctuation rules I've now largely forgotten, and will no doubt forget again in roughly fifteen seconds. I usually have the attention span of a very distracted raccoon when it comes to non-fiction, so it is saying something that I finished this book at all, even if it took two years. Oh, look! something shiny! And that does it for my three exclamation points for the year, alas.
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Jan 19, 2012 Manny marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I have, for some reason, frequently been recommended Lynne Truss's book, though the reason escapes me; friends who have been exposed to my academic writing style are particularly prone to do so, and I have grown used to this strange phenomenon. I'm sure it says more about them - poor, unenlightened souls - than it does about me; for some reason, in particular, very few people understand what a wonderful punctuation mark the semi-colon is, and that it can, and very often should, be used to replac...more

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Aug 02, 2009 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: language, english, humor, top-shelf

This is how I know I'm a real English teacher - I have a shelf dedicated to books just about English. The history of English, the uses and misuses of English, and even the history of the alphabet we use. This is something I never expected to have in my personal library, that's for sure.

But that's all to be expected; I'm an English teacher, and people like me are supposed to read books like this. It's professional development, or something. The weird thing about this book, a book dedicated to pu...more This is how I know I'm a real English teacher - I have a shelf dedicated to books just about English. The history of English, the uses and misuses of English, and even the history of the alphabet we use. This is something I never expected to have in my personal library, that's for sure.

But that's all to be expected; I'm an English teacher, and people like me are supposed to read books like this. It's professional development, or something. The weird thing about this book, a book dedicated to punctuation, of all things, is that it was popular with people who weren't English teachers. Everyone was shocked by how well it sold, the author included. A book written as kind of a primal stickler scream somehow struck a chord with the general reading population. Perhaps there is some hope for our species after all....

The reason it sold well, of course, is that it's well-written and entertaining to read. Far too many books about language are written by dusty intellectual Linguists who exude smugness with their impenetrable jargon and are completely inaccessible to the general public. I have those books on my shelves as well, and nothing this side of a double shot of NyQuil is as good at getting me off into slumberland. Ms. Truss, however, writes like one of us. She's an ordinary person who loves her language and who just snaps every time she sees a sign like, "Apple's - $1". I share her pain.

The book is a well-mixed combination of history, usage and style. The tiny marks that make the written English word behave the way it does have come to us along a remarkable number of paths. In the last millennium or so, marks have been added, changed and removed over time as necessity dictated. One of her fears (and the impetus to write this book) is that we may be changing English to a new form that requires less of that rigid, form-fixing punctuation.

Or people just haven't bothered to learn.

As she notes throughout the book, punctuation is one of those things that few people ever really get to learn. Our English teachers give it a once-over in elementary school, and then we never get a review of it, so we spend most of our lives just throwing around commas and apostrophes and hoping we get it right. More often than not, we don't. And we're afraid to ask anyone, lest we look like ignorant yobs.

But to master punctuation means more than just being a pedant and a nerd. Heavens, no. Mastering punctuation means controlling your language, which is controlling your thoughts. The vast difference between a sentence like, "The convict said the judge is mad" and "The convict, said the judge, is mad" should be enough by itself to illustrate how important proper punctuation is. In a language like English, so dependent on rhythm, timing and stress, punctuation is the substitute for our voice. It tells us when to speed up and slow down, which points need to be stressed and given special attention, and which points (like this one) can be safely disregarded, if one so chooses.

It would be very easy for Ms. Truss' obvious frustration with the misuse of punctuation to overwhelm her and poison the book. Admittedly, she does at one point put together a kit for those who would be punctuation guerrillas and risk prison to set the world straight, but by and large she stops short at advocating actual lawlessness.

Ms. Truss understands that punctuation abuse isn't something that people do intentionally - it's largely a matter of ignorance, and she wants to help. What's more, she's funny. For example:

In the family of punctuation, where the full stop is daddy and the comma is mummy, and the semicolon quietly practises the piano with crossed hands, the exclamation mark is the big attention-deficit brother who gets over-excited and breaks things and laughs too loudly.

Every section in the book has sharp and clever humor, a description of something as simple as a comma made in such a way that you find yourself laughing out loud on the train.

So, if you've always wanted to know about how to use a semicolon, or you're not sure if your commas are in the right place, or if you've ever driven someone to madness by dropping an apostrophe into a possessive "its" - and you know who you are - then this book is the one you need. Enjoy. (less)

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Apr 10, 2012 Aaron rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: just-terrible, general

Lynne Truss pulls off the impressive feat of pumping about 20 pages of expository writing full of enough hot air to go into orbit (or at least top the Bestsellers list for several weeks).

I could probably write a book of equal length (a fluffy and yet tedious 204 pages) going into what a disorganized mess this book is, but I'll spare you. Instead, here are three reasons why you should save yourself the criminal $17.50 this book costs.

First, Truss comes across as such a pretentious, self-importa...more Lynne Truss pulls off the impressive feat of pumping about 20 pages of expository writing full of enough hot air to go into orbit (or at least top the Bestsellers list for several weeks).

I could probably write a book of equal length (a fluffy and yet tedious 204 pages) going into what a disorganized mess this book is, but I'll spare you. Instead, here are three reasons why you should save yourself the criminal $17.50 this book costs.

First, Truss comes across as such a pretentious, self-important jerk that it makes the reading often unbearable. Take this little nugget from page 104:

"To this day I am ashamed of what I did [her response to a pen-pal, both in eighth grade:] to Kerry-Anne (who unsurprisingly never wrote back). I replied to her childish letter on grown-up deckled green paper with a fountain pen. Whether I actually donned a velvet smoking jacket for the occasion I can't remember, but I know I deliberately dropped the word "desultory", and I think I may have used some French. Pretentious? Well, to adapt Gustave Flaubert's famous identification with Emma Bovary, "Adrian Mole, age de treize ans et trois quarts... c'est moi."

I don't speak French, and she leaves this line, pretentiously, untranslated, so I'll have to give her the benefit of the doubt. However, she does not seemed to have learned much from this unrepentantly asshole experience (note: she goes on to use poor Kerry-Anne four more times for her examples) because she spends the entire book essentially trying to tell the world what to do. You might wonder to what end. High standards? A love of literature? No, just her own need to sound sophisticated and manage other people's business. She attempts to gloss this over with an ill-fated attempt at humor, which I'll address next.

Second, she is just not funny. I generally love British humor and I'm familiar with a fair amount of British comedy movies, shows, and writing. I think she must have produced the least funny attempt at humor in British publication in the last 100 years. Her jokes are based on a shared sentiment of self importance, not joy of the language. Furthermore, she tries to come across as appealing to everyone and treating her targets with cautious respect, but she ends up just taking cheap shots at greengrocers, teenagers, and the illiterate (fear of losing language to the barbarians). That's the sickening part. Couple that with her tedious recurrent references to her being single at at age 48 (at time of press), her lack of stereotypical teenage fun ("when other girls of my age were attending the Isle of Wight Festival and having abortions, I bought a copy of Eric Partridge's Usage and Abusage"), and her repeat references to the same stale jokes (Sir Roger Casement "hanged on a comma") and you get a long, tiring read. Her style is an attempt at tongue in cheek, but she really just can't pull it off.

Finally, the book does not even achieve what it aims to. That's impressive for a book pumped ten times the size of its meaningful contents. Truss's real issue seems to be dissatisfaction with lowered standards by the public. She lumps improper punctuation in with poor grammar and phonetic spelling, and in the process she looses sight of her original aim. Poor writing, she assumes, is due to primarily to ignorance; she deplores shorthand writing for text messages, but fails to consider the utility in that context (she doesn't criticize court stenographers using official shorthand). Furthermore, she seems to interpret lax writing as a sign of social, and perhaps moral, decay rather than personal standards for what matters. These days everyone accepts, at least I believe, that the internet is filled with lazy, disorganized writing. I hold most all my own writing to high standards, including this book review, because it matters to me. I don't think it makes much sense or does much good to blow off steam about the masses' lazy writing on the internet. There's no clear thesis and no clear argument. That's the death call for expository writing and defeats the entire purpose of writing the book. The book fails as an educational tool and cannot be redeemed on its humor or otherwise.

I've always had high standards with writing (grammar, punctuation, spelling, style), but having high standards is different from being anal. Truss would have benefited from revisiting The Elements of Style (to which she pays a passing nod at the end) and thoroughly edited her book on everything besides the punctuation, especially the organization. Clarity, flow, and interest would go a long way. (less)

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Jul 26, 2008 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm a snob. In the comfortable safety of my desk chair, I'm audibly mocking you if you dare use "your" for "you're" (my biggest punctuation pet peeve) or if your emails are peppered with unnecessary exclamation points and an overabundance of emoticons. I like the smiley in IM conversations; I hate it in email. It's just a thing. When I meet a pretty young thing that I might want to break bread with on occasion, I'm filled with anxiety over that first email: will she write in complete sentences w...more I'm a snob. In the comfortable safety of my desk chair, I'm audibly mocking you if you dare use "your" for "you're" (my biggest punctuation pet peeve) or if your emails are peppered with unnecessary exclamation points and an overabundance of emoticons. I like the smiley in IM conversations; I hate it in email. It's just a thing. When I meet a pretty young thing that I might want to break bread with on occasion, I'm filled with anxiety over that first email: will she write in complete sentences with capital letters and periods and paragraphs, or will I be left reading a ton of LOLs and dashes and ellipses? The bad email is going to seriously hamper this relationship.

It's with that kind of word nerd superiority complex that I went into Lynne Truss' short book on punctuation. I'm not a stickler, mind, but I do know when things aren't written properly and there are certain crimes against grammar that I just can't abide. Even though I'm sometimes a lazy writer here, I know the problems. I've been known to throw an extra comma where it doesn't belong, and when I'm furiously typing, the "there", "their" and "they're" usage can get hairy. In the last week alone, I've edited recent posts over and over again -- correcting tense and errant apostrophes. Eats, Shoots & Leaves has only succeeded in ramping up my snobbery and intensity.

I politely chided a friend in the comments of a post because she had made a grammar error and she didn't even catch it. That riled me up even more. It's driving me crazy that some old entries in here imported funny and now there are question marks masquerading as apostrophes and single quotes (not to mention the number of dead links, but that's more web nerd than parts of speech geekery isn't it?). Even now, I'm obsessing over whether I'm using punctuation correctly in this piece. I've got two hyphens impersonating a dash and I've got colons and semi-colons up there that I'm pretty sure I'm using the right way but can anyone ever be completely sure? Sigh.

But, yes, I'm a snob. My blogroll is filled with bloggers who are actually writers or aspire to be. If you're going to use words, I want you to have a way with them. I love that most of you understand the importance of setting off proper titles of books and films (whether it be in quotes, italics, or the web person's favorite: the bold) and that you probably are wondering whether or not the period or question mark goes inside or outside the direct quote marks. Ms. Truss makes me feel a little stuffy about caring about such things but there is definitely a comfort in knowing I'm not alone. I appreciated most the history of punctuation she peppered throughout the book along with her very dry British humor and the delight with which she plays with her own writing, saving the colon and semi-colon until she is actually talking about them; keeping the hyphen and dash under-wraps and then exploding with them at the perfect time.

If you're a word nerd, you must read Eats, Shoots & Leaves.(less)

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Apr 29, 2008 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-reference, bullshit

Sanctimonious prudery that doesn't even get everything right, smartly gutted by Louis Menand in a withering New Yorker review. Meh.

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Jul 31, 2007 Jojo rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who are pedantic and irritating

Shelves: non-fiction

Maybe it's because I suffer from a lack of punctuation know-how!>?>:_; but this book irked me! Maybe it's because I'm a linguist and, while I understand the purpose and value of punctuation, I just can't get all worked up about it. Yeah, we all gotta have good writing skillz. But, most sticklers for punctuation that I know are people who want to lord their intelligence over other people, but don't have much to recommend their intelligence other than a knowledge of when to use a semicolon....more

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Feb 21, 2013 Lynne King rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

I found the title intriguing and also the author’s name. I also enjoyed the first words in the Introduction:

“Either this will ring bells for you, or it won’t. A printed banner has appeared on the concourse of a petrol station near to where I live. “Come inside,” it says, “for CD’s, VIDEO’s, DVD’s, and Book’s.”

Such incorrect usage of the apostrophe and it just makes me squirm. I have the same feeling about “its” and “it’s”. I vividly recall learning English grammar at school. It was exceedingly...more

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Oct 15, 2008 Kathrynn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fellow Sticklers

Recommended to Kathrynn by: Language and Grammar Group

Shelves: own, 2008, funny, reviewed, non-fiction-writing

I thoroughly enjoyed this short, funny book about British punctuation. The author had a wonderful sense of humor and used it throughout the book. This was a quick read, with sections on the:

1. Apostrophe
2. Comma
3. Quotation Marks (single and double)
(Now I understand why I see punctuation in and outside of quotation marks; British place outside while the American custom place inside.)
4. Colon, Semicolon and Interjections
5. Dash, Exclamation, Question, Italics, Underlining...
6. Hyphen
7. Emoticons...more

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Apr 29, 2008 Emma rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone with an interesting in writing (better)

When was the last time you read a book where you could literally say, "This book has changed my life." Eat, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss is one such book.

At first I thought a zero tolerance approach to punctuation sounded a bit extreme. That is until Truss mentioned one of my favorite movies ("Two Weeks Notice"), pointing out that the title should be "Two Weeks' Notice". I was shocked. I had always assumed an apostrophe was there. Then I started listening to The Plain White T's, a band whose...more When was the last time you read a book where you could literally say, "This book has changed my life." Eat, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss is one such book.

At first I thought a zero tolerance approach to punctuation sounded a bit extreme. That is until Truss mentioned one of my favorite movies ("Two Weeks Notice"), pointing out that the title should be "Two Weeks' Notice". I was shocked. I had always assumed an apostrophe was there. Then I started listening to The Plain White T's, a band whose name makes no sense with an apostrophe, and I knew things were getting serious.

Nonetheless I will admit that it was a challenge reading the chapters about the apostrophe and the comma (although I have learned a few knew tricks for commas). Then I came to a chapter entitled "Airs and Graces." From there onward, the book was a revelation.

I learned my punctuation from my mom and copious reading. I still have a hard time explaining dependent clauses and why it is appropriate to use "well" instead of "good" even though I can tell when a sentence is complete/written correctly if I can read it. I am sharing this background so that when I say Truss explains all of the punctuation rules presented in her book you will know I mean really clear.

Truss has illustrated that there is a time and place for the dash and double-dash in all good literature. She has also shown that, to avoid over-using the dash, a colon can easily replace a dash in certain situations. I never knew that!

What's nice about Eats, Shoots and Leaves is that it's not a dry read. Yes, Truss is talking about punctuation. Yes, she is deadly serious about it. But she maintains a sense of humor throughout: including witty examples and poking fun at punctuation (and punctuation sticklers) as much as she explains it. In addition, Truss includes abundant historical information about the punctuation marks she discusses ranging from the first names for parentheses to the first appearance of an apostrophe in printed documents.

I would recommend this book highly to anyone with an interest in writing. Even if you know the basics, Truss has a few tricks up her sleeve that are sure to give your writing a little extra flair. (less)

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Feb 12, 2008 Danger Kallisti rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Those who are really good at English and frustrated, and those who suck terribly and need pointers.

Recommended to Danger by: Mike

Shelves: reference-or-non-fiction, language

Amusing. Pretentious. British. It shook my confidence, until I realized that I knew all of this from the get-go, and have intentionally been ignoring it for the sake of art. I write like I think, and I think in text. Defying convention has always been my strong point, after all.
Even then, I think I do a better job at writing in English as it is meant to be written than most people, and I can’t deny that it was gratifying to read a book by someone even more hung up on the finer points of languag...more Amusing. Pretentious. British. It shook my confidence, until I realized that I knew all of this from the get-go, and have intentionally been ignoring it for the sake of art. I write like I think, and I think in text. Defying convention has always been my strong point, after all.
Even then, I think I do a better job at writing in English as it is meant to be written than most people, and I can’t deny that it was gratifying to read a book by someone even more hung up on the finer points of language than I. It really put things back into proportion for me.

“Having grown up as readers of the printed word (and possibly even scribblers in margins), we may take for granted the processes involved in the traditional activity of reading – so let us remind ourselves. The printed word is presented to us in a linear way, with syntax supreme in conveying the sense of the words in their order. We read privately, mentally listening to the writer’s voice and translating the writer’s thoughts. The book remains static and fixed; the reader journeys through it. Picking up the book in the first place entails an active pursuit of understanding. Holding the book, we are aware of posterity and continuity. Knowing that the printed word is always edited, typeset and proof-read before it reaches us, we appreciate its literary authority. Having paid money for it (often), we have a sense of investment and pride of ownership, not to mention a feeling of general virtue.

All these conditions for reading are overturned by the new technologies. Information is presented to us in a non-linear way, through an exponential series of lateral associations. The internet is a public “space” which you visit, and even inhabit; its product is inherently impersonal and disembodied. Scrolling documents is the opposite of reading: your eyes remain static, while the material flows past. Despite all the opportunities to “interact”, we read material from the internet (or CD-roms, or whatever) entirely passively because all the interesting associative thinking has already been done on our behalf. Electronic media are intrinsically ephemeral, are open to perpetual revision, and work quite strenuously against any sort of historical perception. The opposite of edited, the material on the internet is unmediated, except by the technology itself. And having no price, it has questionable value. Finally, you can’t write comments in the margin of your screen to be discovered by another reader fifty years down the line.”

First off, my “inner stickler” would like to point out that it should be “CD-ROM”, as it’s actually an acronym for “compact disc- read only memory”. “Internet” should be capitalized, even though common usage has recently dictated otherwise.
Second, didn’t she just write an entire book about how editing itself is a crapshoot and you can’t really put your faith in it too much? We’ve all seen typographical errors in books; even Truss mentions them somewhere around the beginning of the book.
However, I think her thesis is sound. We are seeing a general decay, not only in the quality of the language, but in the quality of the minds which experience and produce it. The Internet has many useful research outlets, but for the most part, it goes one step further in making media something which affects us, and not something which we effect. Odd, considering that the entire concept of self-publication should do just the opposite. I wrote a good rant about this once, but I think it’s been lost to the selfsame Internet by which it was inspired.
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Feb 19, 2008 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had read about this book on the Internet; it was hailed as wildly funny and cleverly written. When I decided to look into it, I was surprised to find it was shelved with the nonfiction books. I figured such a humorous book would naturally have to be fiction. It was like when I found out The DaVinci Code actually was fiction. With all the talk on those early-morning shows about it and with people taking it so seriously, I honestly thought it was some guy’s research, not a novel.

It was pretty da...more I had read about this book on the Internet; it was hailed as wildly funny and cleverly written. When I decided to look into it, I was surprised to find it was shelved with the nonfiction books. I figured such a humorous book would naturally have to be fiction. It was like when I found out The DaVinci Code actually was fiction. With all the talk on those early-morning shows about it and with people taking it so seriously, I honestly thought it was some guy’s research, not a novel.

It was pretty darn funny in plenty of places. For example:

"The confusion of the possessive “its” (no apostrophe) with the contractive “it’s” (with apostrophe) is an unequivocal signal of illiteracy and sets off a simple Pavlovian “kill” response in the average stickler [one who adheres strictly to rules of punctuation]. The rule is: the word “it’s” (with apostrophe) stands for “it is” or “it has”. If the word does not stand for “it is” or “it has” then what you require is “its”. This is extremely easy to grasp. Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing “Good food at it’s best”, you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave."

SO TRUE! Ha!

Besides being an entertaining read, I learned quite a bit, too. I had forgotten about certain apostrophe rules and there is lots about the history of punctuation that I’d never thought about nor realized. Also, it was interesting to read from the British point of view.

I also learned that, when it comes down to it, once you learn a few basic rules, punctuation becomes a matter of personal style. Sure, changing the punctuation can certainly change the meaning of something, but many people are doing quite all right grammatically.

Okay. All that being said about the book, I couldn’t read more than a few chapters at a time, though it was very readable (despite its erudite tone). This is because the whole “zero tolerance” thing about bad punctuation would really start to irk me. Yes, I roll my eyes when I see 5 Buck Pizza advertising “all toppings ‘free’” as though they are quoting themselves. And I HATE when people think that “plural equals possessive” and just slap on an apostrophe whenever a word ends in “s.” But a lot of rules Truss harps on are, in my opinion, inconsequential. The Two Weeks Notice thing got a little out of hand, I thought, because it really was an obscure apostrophe rule — and I’d much rather people leave OUT apostrophes then throw them in when they’re not needed, wouldn’t you? Also, with all the talk she does of how punctuation has changed — even in the past century — to be a “stickler” in the age of the Internet is hardly worth getting into a fuss over (she does say “let’s not get into a fuss over this” at one point but then proceeds to get angry about emoticons. And I love emoticons! :-) )

Also, this book seemed useful and entertaining to me because I think I have a pretty solid handle on most punctuation rules already. If you don’t know how not to use a comma “like a stupid person,” that “rule” (which is defined mostly by limited examples) is not going to be much help. A reference book this ain’t — go pick up a style guide instead.

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Apr 24, 2007 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Grammar nerds

This book beat any other punctuation guide I've ever been forced to read. This was like reading a page (or 200) out of my own personal rants on bad usage of punctuation in public places.* I love the way Truss emphasizes that us sticklers feel affronted every time we see a movie title that ignores punctuation all together (e.g. Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Two Weeks Notice). It touches on the history of punctuation and why some of us use the oxford comma while some of us don't. It explains the dif...more

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Apr 13, 2009 Bonnie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: on-writing, recommended, reviewed-books

A delightful, informative and satisfying read, especially for those of us who feel the urge to reach for a red pen when confronted with the ubiquitous "grocer's apostrophe". Snappy writing makes it fun, right from the start.

If you're a stickler for punctuation, if you have difficulty using correct punctuation -- or if you just want a good laugh, pick up this book! You will at least want to find out how the title manages to become the punch-line for a joke that begins with, "A panda walks into a...more

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Jul 25, 2007 David rated it 1 of 5 stars

I really don't see what all the fuss was about this book--the author didn't seem particularly knowledgeable, and her "zero-tolerance" approach seems to do more to promote intolerance than to promote clarity.

In particular, her distaste for "emoticons" seems entirely inconsistent with her fascination with the origins of punctuation--it's as if she thinks of punctuation as a dead thing that _used to be_ alive, but now she doesn't want anyone to disturb the corpse.

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Oct 24, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, brain-candy

This is a delightful screed on the demise of punctuation in contemporary expression. Truss bemoans the loss of knowledge or of interest in proper use of language. Truss is a Brit and the usages have not been modified for the American edition of the book. A must and an enjoyable read for anyone who cares about our language, for any reader. In addition to gripes about the slovenly way that we write, Truss offers some history on punctuation.

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Feb 21, 2013 Cheryl in CC NV rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read all the books like this that I can find. I used the bibliography of this to find more. I can't evaluate them objectively.

Ok, ETA. I just read and loved The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left which is a response to the 'zero-tolerance' part of Truss's book by the wonderful & wise David Crystal. He wrote about a lot more than just Truss in his concise overview, but I noted one thing he said that I want to mention here. He seems to think people are thinking of t...more

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Dec 10, 2008 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lynne Truss, a self-proclaimed "stickler," provides a humorous romp through the world of punctuation. The book is part punctuation guide, part history of those funny little squiggles we call punctuation, and part rant about punctuation (mis)use in the real world. Much of the book is built around a seemingly endless collection of real-world punctuation errors that Truss has collected. Many of them are laugh-out-loud funny.

You can read Truss either as a comedienne doing a brilliant routine about p...more

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May 01, 2008 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: linguistics, non-fiction, wishlist

My inner linguist would love to take credit for choosing this book for easy reading, but I must admit the truth. My interest was actually captured by the title: it references one of my mom's favorite jokes of all time. Needless to say, I come from an exceptionally "punny" family.

My high expectations were actually exceeded. This book - quite literally - had me laughing out loud, over and over again. I consider myself more of a descriptive (rather than a prescriptive) linguist, but I can still ide...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Fallopia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

I loved Eats, Shoots, & Leaves, but then I knew from the minute I heard of it that I would; it's a book that lets you know it's okay to be a stickler—nay, not just okay, but noble, for caring enough about the preservation of grammar and order and all that that implies.

Lynne Truss takes us from the beginnings of the written word to present day e-mailings and scribblings. It should be considered the across-the-pond companion book to Strictly Speaking: Will America Be the Death of English? Sure...more

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Dec 13, 2009 Cecily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humour, language-related

Truss' tongue-in-cheek style may not appeal to everyone and I don't agree with her about everything. In particular, "zero tolerance" makes punctuation an end in itself, rather than an aid to meaning, which seems back to front. It also makes no allowance for context and audience.

However, she gave punctuation and grammar a voice, and, however briefly, made people think about language, ambiguity and meaning, which is certainly good. Or it would be, if it didn't fuel the fire in the bellies of extr...more

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Jun 18, 2011 Lucy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

More often than not when I read an email or office memo a few punctuation and grammar errors catch my attention. Every so often I get one that reads as if the person who composed it was barely literate. My formal education with grammar and punctuation ended in grade school. High school did not place a large emphasis on it and the very few English classes I took in college assumed students knew a great many things some of my classmates clearly did not. I mostly took it upon myself to make sure I...more

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Mar 28, 2011 Harold Griffin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I first heard the title of this little volume a decade ago, somehow I stupidly jumped to mis-conclusions about its topic. I did not hear or visually scan the subtitle, which made perfectly clear to even the densest dinosaur that the book is about PUNCTUATION. Preoccupied by the comets that then and yesterday threatened my extinction, I thought that this was a feminist rant about primitive male sexual behavior. And what dinosaur needs THAT?

Alas, for over ten years I missed a true gem. This f...more

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Jul 11, 2007 John Beeler rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a waste of my time. Think of an old guy yelling at a bunch of kids to get of his lawn. Then put that sentence in really good grammar, and that is this book.

It's overwhelmingly pretentious. As far as I am concerned, it generally ignores the way language moves to apparent regression when in fact it is merely changing, as it always does.

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May 18, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lynne Truss's(notice the apostrophe) book on punctuation is witty, engaging, and at times falling on the floor funny. She gives the reader a history on the use and misuse of punctuation. And because of her persuasive talent, I plan to join the Apostrophe Society. Despite the humor it is obvious that Ms. Truss takes the English language seriously. And she stresses that the printers created punctuation to make it easier for the reader, to bring clarity. She gives many humorous examples of business...more

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Jul 12, 2007 David rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: words-and-language, mind-numbingly-boring

I have no idea why this book enjoyed the success that it did. It, bored, the pants, off, me frankly.

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Jan 23, 2012 Flaneurette rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: language, 2012

As I started reading the book - should there be a comma here or not? Lynne Truss wouldn't be able to tell you - I thought I would land on a four star rating - now again I have no idea whether there should be a comma; or perhaps I could start with a new sentence here - but - comma? - as I progressed - these full-of-myself interruptions are getting "annoying" or ANNOYING, aren't they? OK, you're getting my point and how I felt about reading this book - I got increasingly appalled by the author

- be...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Jakob rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you're thinking about whether you should read Eats, Shoots and Leaves I recommend you ask yourself first "Am I a grammar Nazi?"

If the answer is yes then go ahead, you'll love it. If you belong to the rest of the human race check out this hilarious article instead which is also surprisingly informing.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-commonl...

Although I'm a bit of a language geek I generally found the author obnoxious and her observations pedantic. Languages are living things and although it's i...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Lauren Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: mooched, non-fiction, language, own, to-re-read

Lynne Truss is, perhaps, a little nuts about punctuation, but she has a point and she knows how to use it.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves is a very useful and very funny little book that discusses and illuminates punctuation in a manner that all but ensures you’ll know how to use it. Truss strongly believes that “[p:]roper punctuation is the sign and the cause of clear thinking” (202) and she argues her case very well. Using gorgeous little metaphors and images, historical origins, and a generous dose...more

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About Lynne Truss

Lynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal...more

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Books by Lynne Truss

Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!

The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can't Manage without Apostrophes!

Twenty-Odd Ducks: Why, every punctuation mark counts!

The Lynne Truss Treasury: Columns and Three Comic Novels

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Quotes from Eats, Shoots & Leaves:...

“A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife annual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.” — 44 people liked it

“Thurber was asked by a correspondent: "Why did you have a comma in the sentence, 'After dinner, the men went into the living-room'?" And his answer was probably one of the loveliest things ever said about punctuation. "This particular comma," Thurber explained, "was Ross's way of giving the men time to push back their chairs and stand up.” — 44 people liked it

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

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