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

3.80 · rating details · 25,155 ratings · 2,511 reviews

A bona fide publishing phenomenon, Lynne Truss's now classic #1 New York Times bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves makes its paperback debut after selling over 3 million copies worldwide in hardcover. 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, ...more

Paperback, 209 pages

Published April 11th 2006 by Gotham (first published January 2nd 2003)

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Sep 01, 2009

Ceridwen rated it

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 t...moreRecently, 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

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

· review of another edition

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 ...moreThis 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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Jul 26, 2008

Jason rated it

· review of another edition

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 ...moreI'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

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

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 semicolo...more

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Oct 15, 2008

Kathrynn rated it

Recommends it for: Fellow Sticklers

Recommended to Kathrynn by: Language and Grammar Group

Shelves: nonfiction-general, own, 2008, funny, reviewed

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, Questi...more

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Apr 29, 2008

Emma rated it

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 list...moreWhen 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

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 point...moreAmusing. 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

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 w...moreI 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

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

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 ...more

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Jul 25, 2007

David rated it

· review of another edition

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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Dec 10, 2008

Keith rated it

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 b...more

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May 01, 2008

Angela rated it

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) lin...more

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Jun 18, 2011

Lucy rated it

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

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...more

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Jul 11, 2007

John Beeler rated it

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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Jul 12, 2007

David rated it

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 15, 2009

Aaron rated it

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 p...moreLynne 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 pay 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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Jan 23, 2012

Flaneurette rated it

· 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 ...more

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Jul 12, 2010

Lauren Smith rated it

· 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 gene...more

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May 16, 2009

Leslie rated it

· review of another edition

If you're like me you ask yourself this question once a decade, if at all: does punctuation really matter? We, who live in a world of “Netspeak” and emoticons (both excuses for not putting the right words in the right places), do we think the age of the appropriately placed semicolon, dash or parenthesis is dead?

I personally murder the semicolon on a daily basis it seems. I tire of pursing my lips in thought at the end of every sentence I write (or send as it were), wondering if ...moreIf you're like me you ask yourself this question once a decade, if at all: does punctuation really matter? We, who live in a world of “Netspeak” and emoticons (both excuses for not putting the right words in the right places), do we think the age of the appropriately placed semicolon, dash or parenthesis is dead?

I personally murder the semicolon on a daily basis it seems. I tire of pursing my lips in thought at the end of every sentence I write (or send as it were), wondering if I should use that uppity mixture of comma and full stop, or slice off its bottom (and more lovely) half, until I start drooling uncontrollably and mumble gibberish to myself. Who really cares after all? Ah, and see ¬– therein lies the problem: someone always cares.

With the advent of the internet and millions of us fancying ourselves
“writers” when really we are “senders”, there are – for the good of those with stock in the makers of red and blue pens; I’d hate for them to suffer – some still left in the world, hiding in corners waiting to pounce on the first ill-used word; shouting with their fists in the air, “Sticklers unite!”

Lynne Truss is one of those standing in the picket lines, with her blue pencil in hand of course, editing everyone’s protest signs and encouraging all to read her book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a book about a misplaced comma and a panda with a gun....ahem. Truss is a woman on a mission; a personal journey that nimbly gyrates from the grocer, and the newspaper; to the sign on the road, and the Hollywood marquee.

This woman is extremely anal, perhaps bordering on obsessive- compulsive, but I don’t think she cares. For her punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop. But did I learn something, which after all, is probably her point, regardless of her nit pickiness. I would say, yes I did.

Mainly, it was this: in a lot of cases, it’s a matter of personal taste. If it burns deep within your chest to place a semicolon after a sentence, then by all means – do it! Want to put a comma after the word and? Apparently it depends on what country you’re from. What? So, besides the fact that someone at the New Yorker doesn’t find her book very accurate, I thought it very witty and fun, and most of it made sense. Do I now feel more paranoid about those pesky dots and dashes? Not really, but just in case I’ll continue to avoid the caffeine beverages and try to remember that writing a sentence is a bit like adding paint to a blank canvas. Each is unique and subject to personal taste.

(less)

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Mar 31, 2009

Stephanie rated it

· review of another edition

Lynne Truss’ Eats, Shoots & Leaves is the very best book I’ve read about punctuation. Okay, it’s the only book I’ve ever read about punctuation, but that doesn’t diminish its accomplishment: for 204 pages, it managed to make punctuation not only educational, but also interesting.

Much of this is due to Truss’ amusing illustrations. For example, consider the difference a comma makes in the sentence, “Now I must go and get on, my lover.” Go ahead, take the comma out and see what you get. Go a

...more

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Apr 05, 2009

Andrew rated it

· review of another edition

"A panda walks into a café. 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 manual 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 mamma...more

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May 23, 2010

Hayes rated it

Shelves: read-in-2010

Lynne Truss is amusing enough, and I will finish the book, even if it's full of stuff I already know* (semicolon) however (comma)

The Transitive Vampire A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed

and

The New Well Tempered Sentence A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed

did it first, and better.

Having said that, I adore the "Punctuation Repair Kit", the stickers representing commas, apostrophes, colons, etc., that you can take around with you for quick repair jobs on mangled signs in your neighborhood.

* I was fishing around for a punctuation book for students that is readily available and ...more

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May 30, 2009

Choupette rated it

Recommends it for: people unclear on the use of basic punctuation

Recommended to Choupette by: Mrs Connolly

Shelves: non-fiction, own-or-access, language-linguistics

EVERYONE! I HAVE A QUESTION:

When you read to yourself, that is, not aloud, do you hear the words in your head? Does the punctuation affect how you hear them? Does it change, as it were, your mental intonation, the cadences of your inner voice? Does it tell you when to pause, when not to pause, how long to pause, and when to stop completely?

It does mine. And hence why I have never understood why people have trouble with of punctuation (Actually, this isn't quite true: I c...moreEVERYONE! I HAVE A QUESTION:

When you read to yourself, that is, not aloud, do you hear the words in your head? Does the punctuation affect how you hear them? Does it change, as it were, your mental intonation, the cadences of your inner voice? Does it tell you when to pause, when not to pause, how long to pause, and when to stop completely?

It does mine. And hence why I have never understood why people have trouble with of punctuation (Actually, this isn't quite true: I can understand to a large extent people having problems with apostrophes and even hyphens, and whether to use single or double quotation marks is something with which I grapple daily). But FULL STOPS, commas, ellipses, dashes, and even the dreaded semi-colon: what's the deal, world? Is it really that hard? Can't you just listen to the words in your head and just know which punctuation mark to use?

But seriously, am I alone in this ability? I thought everyone could do it. But evidently not, I guess. Or alternatively, I am a snob who reads too much. Incidentally, I remember a time (back in year eight) when I didn't know how to use the semi-colon, but I seemed to develop the ability spontaneously. Why doesn't this happen to everyone? But anyway. Punctuational musings aside and on to the book.

I had to re-rate this book from four stars to three. Somehow I didn't find it so funny the second time I read it. The humour seemed forced, and formulaic (I'm a proponent of the Oxford comma, in its place, by the way). Perhaps linguistics has spoiled me. One year of rabid left-wing hippy pot-smoking free-yonder-children-from-the-shackles-of-modern-education descriptivist linguistics lecturers has cured me (almost) completely of any lingering signs of prescriptivism (for all you who remain unconvinced, Stephen Fry and Language Hat will tell you why descriptivists have more fun).

In any case, I've seen curses rained upon Lynne Truss for her 'smug', 'self-righteous' 'linguistic snobbism', but she's a sweetie at heart, I believe. For all her grouchy, unconvinced attempts to paint herself as a not-too-prescriptive-prescriptivist (if that isn't an oxymoron), she's clearly just a language lover (to hyphen or not to hyphen?) at heart. Observe:

"... it is a matter for despair to see punctuation chucked out as worthless by people who don't know the difference between "who's" and "whose", and whose bloody automatic 'grammar checker' can't tell the difference either. [hear, hear! Fucking grammar checkers.:] And despair was the initial impetus for this book. I saw a sign for "Book's" with an apostrophe in it, and something deep inside me snapped; snapped with that melancholy sound you hear in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, like a far-off cable breaking in a mine-shaft [sic; I would have said mineshaft:]. I know that language moves on. It has to... But I can't help feeling that our punctuation system, which has served the written word with grace and ingenuity for centuries, must not be allowed to disappear without a fight."

And no, it's not just the Cherry Orchard reference that makes my heart go boompity-boomp. No matter how many linguistics lecturers I have, no matter how many blog posts written by celebrities advocating descriptivism I read, I will still understand, even if not share, Ms Truss's sentiments. It's the same feeling of sadness I feel when I contemplate the word 'awesome' and how it can never really encompass all that it used to. The same feeling of tragic loss I feel when I realise that the phrase 'the stuff of magic' is actually kind of funny these days. The same half-smothered regret that is inspired within my soul as I cast around desperately for a synonym for 'random' that doesn't make me sound like an idiotic teen.

It's just nostalgia, pure and simple.(less)

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Jul 11, 2008

Richard rated it

I was a little concerned about this book when I first started it. Perhaps to make a point, or perhaps to seem a little controversial in order to sell more books, Truss starts out with pure diatribe against sloppy punctuation skills. Mostly, she targets supermarket-style punctuation errors, but in her chapter on apostrophes she began with what she deemed useless apostrophe errors, which after a while felt overly restrictive and downright racist. Some of her references to apostrophe errors seemed ...more

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Apr 30, 2008

Sajitha Jayaprakash rated it

Shelves: have-read

What fascinated me was the fact that a book on punctuation was at the top of UK bestseller lists. Also, the title and it’s explanation was equally fascinating. Being a technical writer by profession, I thought this book would be interesting, informative, and educative. I bought it, read it and found it a little interesting, a little informative, and a little educative! Any writer will know that the word punctuation puts you in an alert mode and you try to be careful!

The title "...more

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Dec 21, 2007

Tracey rated it

Shelves: libraryread

By writing this book, Ms. Truss encourages grammar and punctuation sticklers to unite in protesting the current laxity in writing. After presenting numerous examples of mangled and missing punctuation, she lists and discusses the basic rules for punctuation, as well as the history of the various marks. She mixes indignation and humour in proportion, never taking herself too seriously.

Punctuation, on the other hand, she takes quite seriously; she believes that without it, communicati...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 & Leave...

“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.” — 28 people liked it

“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 anual 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.” — 23 people liked it

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