The sound of commas by RM Greenaway

HOW IMPORTANT IS GRAMMAR TO YOU AND WHEN DO YOU BREAK THE GRAMMAR RULES? 
A few thoughts on punctuation, rather than grammar -- mostly the comma.
To me, writers can punctuate however they want, as long as the story moves along and is clear.
There does seem to be a trend in the books I've been picking up lately, though, where the meaning isn't as clear as it could be, and that's because so many useful commas are being left out. That's the case with the novel I'm reading now, in fact. And it...