Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation | 
| Author: Lynne Truss
Publisher: Gotham
Category: Book
List Price: $12.00
Buy New: $3.09
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Avg. Customer Rating:  534 reviews
Sales Rank: 1670
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 4.9 x 0.8
ISBN: 1592402038
Dewey Decimal Number: 428.2
EAN: 9781592402038
ASIN: 1592402038
Publication Date: April 11, 2006
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Product Description
A bona fide publishing phenomenon, Lynne Trusss 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, 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 way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with. BACKCOVER: Praise for Lynne Truss and Eats, Shoots & Leaves:
Eats, Shoots & Leaves makes correct usage so cool that you have to admire Ms. Truss.
Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Witty, smart, passionate.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, Best Books Of 2004: Nonfiction
Who knew grammar could be so much fun?
Newsweek
Witty and instructive. . . . Truss is an entertaining, well-read scold in a culture that could use more scolding.
USA Today Truss is William Safire crossed with John Cleeses Basil Fawlty.
Entertainment Weekly
Lynne Truss has done the English-speaking world a huge service.
The Christian Science Monitor
This book changed my life in small, perfect ways like learning how to make better coffee or fold an omelet. Its the perfect gift for anyone who cares about grammar and a gentle introduction for those who dont care enough.
The Boston Sunday Globe
Lynne Truss makes [punctuation] a joy to contemplate.
Elle
If Lynne Truss were Roman Catholic Id nominate her for sainthood. Frank McCourt, author of Angelas Ashes
Trusss scholarship is impressive and never dry.
Edmund Morris, The New York Times Book Review
Download Description
"""You don't need to be a grammar nerd to enjoy this one...Who knew grammar could be so much fun?"" -Newsweek 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 email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 529 more reviews...
 Puzzled by all the hype... June 15, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Frankly, I'm puzzled over the hype about this book. I have always been annoyed with mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. But even I had trouble making it through this book. Sure, there were interesting and funny sections. And I even cleared up a few punctuation rules that weren't clear to me before. However, there were parts I found downright boring. It seems like the average person cares less about punctuation than I do, so how did this get on the best-seller list? I am glad I read it, though, because I did learn something. It's also good to know there are people out there who care about punctuation even more than I do!
Entertaining but poorly punctuated! May 28, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
As 532 other reviewers have (by in large) said, Lynne Truss's book is a funny and enjoyable rant about proper punctuation. It's also remarkably poorly punctuated for a grammar book. In some passages, Truss uses a forest of commas that get in the reader's way; in others, she omits commas that the reader needs to understand her meaning -- and there's little rhyme or reason for why she goes from one extreme to the other. In one section, after stating that her goal is to get "the greatest clarity from punctuation," Truss writes: "There is a rumour that in parts of the Civil Service workers have been pragmatically instructed..." when she means (for clarity): "There is a rumour that in parts of the Civil Service, workers have been pragmatically instructed...." There are many, many other examples that will (or should) leave punctuation sticklers shaking their collective heads. That said -- and I feel much better now for saying it -- Truss's good advice and entertaining writing far outweigh her occasional bad usage, making this a grammar book worth buying.
 I Like the Audio Better than the Hard Cover May 21, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Since 531 people have already reviewed Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation and a gozillian people have reacted with comments when they voted, I am being assertive by thinking I can add something. By the way, the other reviews are entertaining.
When I bought my book, I was glad to get it. I had heard an interview with Lynne Truss on television, and I knew I had to have this book. When I started reading it, I found it amusing; but to be honest, I found that it dragged a little at times. Then I listened to the audio, which is thoroughly entertaining. Something is lost when it is not possible to hear this book read with a British accent.
At first, I bristled a little because it seemed she was poking at us in the United States. Since I am from Mississippi -- considered the most illiterate place in this country but also the home of John Grisham, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Margaret Walker -- I was thinking that the British people -- because they have William Wordsworth, Geoffery Chaucer, and William Shakespeare (none of these guys punctuate the way Ms. Truss does) and because they spoke our English first -- think they are smarter than we are, that they speak better, and that we never can talk or write right. I was relieved to find that she criticizes her own people. She astonished me by admitting that people on her side of the pond use commas for apostrophes sometimes. I have never seen that error.
She seems to consider young children in England the best informed group about punctuation and other matters of grammar. The dilemma as to whether we should obey rules or whether the rules should obey our usage is not solved in this book.
No matter what I thought, I found it entertaining, and I like to contemplate the use of language. To make this subject fun is a major achievement.
Get your hands on the audio, but buy the book as a reference. I hope you find this review helpful.
 Grammar Police April 27, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I did like reading about grammar. I love grammar. I love punctuation and I love the English language. As a teacher, I found it entertaining and informative in non-structured way. However, I do not like it when a writer states something like a joke or a particular way of punctuating a sentence and then goes on to explain the whole thing, as though you are a bit daft and would not understand without her interpretation.
The book is a great idea but I began to skim the book about a third of the way through. You might as well...
I could not have been more wrong April 17, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Yes, that's right, 5 Stars for a book about proper punctuation. I fully expected to get through this book only for my 2008 Challenges. In my mind's eye I saw myself reading a page or two and then falling sound asleep from boredom. I could not have been more wrong.
Not only does Lynne Truss make punctuation interesting, she makes it funny. She knows just were little punctuation puns fit. Who knew there were 17 proper uses for the apostrophe?! There was, at onetime, a movement to have a special mark to indicate a rhetorical question. As is stated on the front flap, "Through sloppy usage and low standards on the Internet, in e-mail, and now "txt msgs", we have made proper punctuation an endangered species." (not to mention proper spelling)
I've given this book 5 Stars not only because I enjoyed it, but because I think all of us who have been out of the classroom for 10 years or more could use a refresher.
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