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

Oct 04, 2009 Megan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I have been looking for a book to help improve my grammar and this one was recommended to me. The problem is I am not a grammar Nazi and Ms. Truss insists for the first 5 pages that if you don't want to go around correcting every piece of incorrect grammar; you should put the book down and stop reading. After the third or fourth time of being told you are not the reader the author wants it gets a little irritating.

However, I pushed through. I would like to give this a far lower rating but it *h ...more

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Nov 20, 2009 Angela Randall rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult-educational-material, 2000-2009, we-own, 21st-century, young-adult, ange-recommends, read-2010, language-linguistics-grammar, times-best-100-of-decade, kids-8plus

The book is written from the perspective of a punctuation nut, but isn't just a punctuation manual. It takes you on a general tour of punctuation uses. Just when you are starting to think "Yes, yes I know all this" she drops in a funny example or tells you more of the history involved. It's really quite a fascinating read, which could also serve to remind or teach the reader about punctuation uses commonly in use.

I would certainly recommend it to anyone who writes professionally, wants to appea ...more

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Apr 12, 2009 PurplyCookie rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, reference

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 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 mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

So, punctuation reall ...more

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Jul 08, 2009 Joyce F rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction-linquistics

Ya gotta appreciate a writer and her book when they successfully conspire to inspire laughter from grammar-freaks! I laughed (until I embarrassed myself, several times!). Good job, Ms. Truss. And, thanks.

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