false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165672356m/8596.jpg 8596 14 Lynne Truss is the pundit of pet peeves. She's taken on the ignorance of basic grammar with <i>Eats, Shoots & Leaves</i>, now she bravely rallies against the abysmal state of manners. And while she uses the Jerry Springer-esque phrase of 'talk to the hand' as her title, it's obvious she'd like to have snarkily dubbed it "Learn Some Effing Manners People!"--only she's too polite to do so. (It should be noted that while she's shocked by 6-year-olds using the f-word, she's hopeful that it's so overused that it'll soon sink into obsolescence.) To hammer across her points on politesse, Truss pulls quotations from an astonishing range of sources. Sociologist Erving Goffman is a favorite, but the Simpsons (of cartoon fame, not Jessica & Ashlee), Evelyn Waugh, and W.B. Yeats are also tapped. What her rant boils down to though is unsurprising: <i>modern communication is at the root of rude behavior</i>. Mobile phones and iPods have left us existing in our own little "bubble worlds," she says. "It used to be just CIA agents with earpieces--who regarded all the little people as irrelevant scum. Now it's nearly everybody." These self-produced bubbles make it easy for rudeness to rule. If someone forgets to hold a door or say "Thank you," it's because, Truss says, they're zoned out in their personal space, and will likely be offended if their lack of manners is pointed out. (The ruder the person, she says, the more easily offended.) Truss certainly earns many chuckles throughout her somewhat rambling musings, but her concern about society's decline is serious. To that end, she offers the words of Willy Loman's wife in Arthur Miller's most famous play on modern-day morality (and we all remember what happens in its last act): "Attention must be paid."<i> --Erica Jorgensen</i> A Note from Lynne Truss Dear Amazon customer and fellow stickler, There's an odd thing I'm finding about my new book, <i>Talk to the Hand</i>. The moment I start describing it to people ("Basically, it's about the rudeness of everyday life - "), they jump straight in with stories about all the rudeness they've encountered in the past ten years. When I was trying to tell people about punctuation, engaging their attention was a victory. Well, not this time. "And another thing!" they say, banging the table. "What about cell phones? What about cold callers?" I make a feeble stab at outlining my six good reasons to stay home and bolt the door, also my theory of the alienation of modern life, which is that fundamentally we expect to be met half-way in our dealings with strangers and are continually shocked that this courtesy no longer pertains - but who am I kidding? I never get further than the first good reason (the decline of "please", "thank you", and "excuse me") because people are agreeing so vehemently, and I'm saying "Absolutely" and "You're right" and "Actually, some of this is in the book." The thing is: there is nothing original in being against rudeness. Everyone is against rudeness. In fact, very, very rude people object to it strongly. But why does it matter to us so much? Are we so scared of other people? Why do we spend so much of our time saying, "Oh, that's so RUDE"? All I can say is, you could find out from reading the book! But if you'd rather not, best wishes to all sticklers. Your special pal, Lynne Truss 2881 8 11 2005 Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door total:888|5:141|4:275|3:303|2:128|1:41| 888 3011 1412 186 3 3 false false Thu Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sat Oct 06 05:35:28 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 21 11:05:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false true Wed Apr 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 09:15:07 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 09:17:28 -0700 2008 ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Nov 22 20:33:27 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 22 20:34:03 -0800 2007
I adored Lynn Truss' first book, Eat, Shoots & Leaves. It was a great rant against the deterioration of our grammar skills. As someone who cringes every time she sees people use 'loose' instead of 'lose', 'you're' instead of 'your' or 'irregardless' in an...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jun 01 15:13:52 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 17 14:40:49 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Mar 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 14:03:48 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 14:31:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Feb 22 22:11:11 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 22:45:53 -0800 2009
This book has it all. It is hilario...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 06:03:38 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 04:56:29 -0800 2009
For someone who takes joy in pondering where society went...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Mar 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 03:49:24 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 03:54:26 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sun Sep 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 16:16:56 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 16:21:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 00:54:03 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 23:38:39 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 16:16:05 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 16:21:22 -0700 2009
While manners may not be quite as dead as Talk to the Hand would lead us to believ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 09:16:45 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 09:30:10 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 14 15:56:04 -0800 2009 Mon Sep 14 22:09:04 -0700 2009 Sat Nov 14 15:56:04 -0800 2009
"This is my grand theory of social alienation in the early twenty-first century, by the way, so don't miss it, pay attention...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Apr 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 17 17:57:57 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 18:32:32 -0800 2009
Her Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, was a much needed voice crying out in a wilderness of illiteracy for restoration of the small but necessary tools of the writer's art, the symbols of punctuation, and their necessar...more...]]> 3 0 true false Tue Sep 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 18 18:22:31 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 23 20:53:04 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Oct 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 09 06:39:17 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 14 07:35:08 -0700 2009 Eats, Shoots and Leaves h...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jan 30 16:47:15 -0800 2008 Thu Apr 03 20:18:33 -0700 2008 "This is my grand theory of social alienation in the early twenty-first century, by the way, so don't miss it, pay attention. The thing is, we are kings of click-and-buy. We ca...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Sep 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 22 19:22:12 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 27 00:18:56 -0700 2008 1
i like this quote, and it's probably the most important lesson i learned from this book (besides a good method for screwing credit card companies by weighing down the ...more...]]> 1 1 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 14 17:00:53 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 05 08:22:42 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Thu Jun 07 12:51:30 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 29 12:10:06 -0700 2007
A mother says to her friend about her spoiling her daughter, (I'm paraphrasing) "She didn't ask to be born" Seems that pare...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=8596