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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
Informative and mildly entertaining, 4 April 2005
Punctuation is rather like taxation law - it's a dry old subject but if you don't understand it you can't use it to your advantage. Having left a rather unimpressive comprehensive school at the age of 15, I relished the chance of receiving some, albeit late, tuition in punctuation. And I got it, courtesy of Lynne Truss. OK, professional journalists, English scholars and the like may scoff. They take such skills for granted whilst forgetting that some of us are educationally disadvantaged in this respect.Although entirely comfortable with apostrophes, I was never really sure on which occasions to use a colon or a semi-colon. I liberally use dashes in my texts as alternatives to commas - but was uncertain whether this was permissible. I now know that it is. Furthermore, I am finally able to appreciate the importance of hyphenation to avoid ambiguity. Thanks, Lynne! The book was also mildly entertaining but I can't honestly say that I was unable to put it down - especially if there was something more enthralling on the telly. Glad I read it, though.
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41 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
A pleasure to read - but don't expect to learn much, 10 Feb 2004
This little book (204 small pages of large type) is fun to read. The author has an amusing and engaging style that makes it a pleasure to read. You get the feeling that she pretends to be a "punctuation fascist" but actually appreciates the futility of being over-fussy about presentation.Don't buy this book is you want to learn how to punctuate correctly. Although the book covers the most common errors in punctuation, it's too short to cover any of them in much depth so I'm not sure if you would learn a great deal from reading this book. There are much better books on punctuation if you're serious about mastering it. In fact, I suspect that the book is best for someone who already has a good grasp of (and interest in) punctuation and simply wants to learn a little more about it. I found particularly interesting the historical background to punctuation marks that is scattered across the chapters. So if you have already mastered punctuation, have an interest in this subject, and you want a light, amusing read then this little book comes highly recommended.
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39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Goes Downhill., 16 Mar 2004
Half a million copies sold and still flying off the shelves; this book has either hit a nerve or it's just the latest fashionable read. I suspect a bit of both. Being pretty keen on 'good' punctuation myself, I at first found this book amusing and instructive. But as page followed page, it became that little bit more of an effort to keep going. By page 102 I found myself turning to thoughts of wet fish.In truth, Truss could have compressed the essence of this book into a one page article in (say) The Sunday Times. Making her subject matter last over two hundred pages is just spreading the butter too thinly. As others have observed, this is neither an instruction manual nor an amusing observation on current use of the English language. Truss is trying to do both and the book looses direction as a consequence. I am at least glad that the one over-riding misunderstanding in the modern use of English is covered pretty clearly (page 43): the use of 'its' and 'it's'. All you have to remember is that 'it's' means 'it is' or 'it has'. That's it! There, I've saved you seven pounds.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Eats, shoots and leaves, 11 Jan 2007
The book essentially gives you a history/discussion of punctuation marks, some fairly humorous examples of poor usage and advocates the merits of good punctuation. I purchased it for entertainment purposes but I also half expected that it would give you something of a guide on correct usage. In some ways it does this but as the author states, this is certainly not a holistic tutorial on how to use punctuation marks, if you want a book of this nature then there are many good ones such as "Usage and Abusage" by Eric Partridge and Janet Whitcut.
With that said this book certainly isn't a waste of time, it's full of genuinely interesting facts about where punctuation conventions originated and some of the incredibly heated debates touched on are hilarious. However I'm inclined to agree with some of the reviews which found the tone (or even the premise) a little galling. That's down to personal taste of course, but for all the justification given in the introduction about preserving the language I was left with a strong impression that the real intention of the book is to satisfy the author's vanity at the expense of others' mistakes. It seems to fall into the classic trap of assuming everyone's a punctuation ignoramus until they prove otherwise, as evidenced by the section on those 'lying' about using perfect punctuation in mobile phone text messages, for instance. I think the real mistake is assuming that the odd isolated punctuation mistake is enough to generalise ignorance to the rest of the population.
So overall then, it has enough facts to keep you interested and at times is very enjoyable, but the tone can and will put off certain readers so beware.
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45 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
Not for grammarians, 1 Mar 2004
This is a good book to use if your area of study is not grammar. The main reason being, Eats, Shoots & Leaves walks a line between being descriptive (obersving grammar) and prescriptive (telling people what to do and why) and never truly commits to either.The chapters have a lot of fun and interesting pieces of information and Truss obviously researched this book tirelessly (which more writers should do). As such, the areas where she discusses history (especially)stand out as work of significant quality; in all of the areas where the book is descriptive it shines brighter than many other books in the field -- especially if your life is not focused on English or Rhetoric. Where Truss attempts to present prescriptive grammar, the book is on shakier ground. She gives rules quickly and sometimes provides an incomplete list of what pieces of punctuation can do (her discussions of the semicolon, colon, and dash are too short and ignore many of the more modern, cutting-edge uses of them). Truss is clearly a conservative user of punctuation. If you're looking for a book of prescriptive grammar, I reccommend Rhetorical Grammar by Martha Kolln or the reliable Elements of Style by Strunk and White (more geared toward English majors.) If you want a fun, light, easy-to-read book with gems of information, then this book should be somewhere on your hold list at the local library.
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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting rantings, 3 Jan 2004
As a brief history of punctuation, this book is enjoyable enough. It has lots of fascinating anecdotes about the ever evolving application of commas. Lynne Truss' (or should that be Truss's - there seems to be no agreement on the matter) militant approach to apostrophes will have something to teach even the most anally retentive among you. And, for the first time in my life, I finally feel brave enough to attempt the use of a semicolon.It's quite a short book though. I read it in three light sittings, which left me wondering whether the price tag wasn't a little too high. Still, if you want an introduction to punctuation that you can actually finish before the tedium drives you to gnaw your own arms off, then this book is for you. Both the best and worst thing about this book, is the way it teeters on the edge of grammatical fascism, while managing not to take itself too seriously. What ruined the book for me was the the savage and unprovoked attack on the more modern developments in punctuation. Having talked about the unprescribed and democratic evolution of our punctuation, and, how necessary it is for conveying the correct meaning of the text: she then attacks emoticons as a fad :-( , belittles the use of the asterisk for *emphasis* and expresses a distaste for the ellipsis... I think Truss' argument is that we should all punctuate more thoughtfully; so long as we don't all agree to change anything without consulting her first.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Not great but not bad either, 7 Aug 2007
Subtitled "The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation", this isn't a grammatical how-to book, it's about the correct use of punctuation. It starts by looking at the different meanings you can give to the same passage of text without changing the words, just the placement of the punctuation. For example compare the two passages:
Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy - will you let me be yours?
Jill
With:
Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You gave ruined me. For other men I yearn! For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Jill
It then spends a bit of time talking about the main punctuation marks including the full stop, comma, apostrophe, exclaimation mark, question mark, colon and semicolon. She gives you the correct use of each and then a little time is spent on some examples showing how correct use changes the meaning of a sentence.
It was quite funny in places, but it didn't really tell me much that I didn't know already (except perhaps about the semicolon which I have never used). I think the main problem with this book is that people who already use punctuation are the type of people who will be interested in reading this book. Those who are unsure or don't really bother with it will see it as boring and pedantic and therefore not read it. This mostly defeats it's purpose!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Very clever, but not as wonderful as some believe, 6 Jan 2007
I have huge admiration for Lynne Truss and for what she has accomplished with this book. She has provoked a debate about the written English language which will serve it well, and has stimulated many thousands of people to actually care about what they are writing and how they are writing it.
I expected to love the book, but was surprised by how difficult it was to enjoy.
The problem is not in the meat of the book, the middle section, which is all about the history, evolution and use of popular punctuation. That's the best bit of it and is thoroughly informative and good reading.
The opening chapters are the major issue; Lynne hectors and rants and has a good old moan about how awful everything is. Frankly, it's hard going even if you are a perfect punctuator. For someone who has learned a little grammar the hard way, by picking it up as I go along and by figuring out the rules from well-written examples, I found it all rather oppressive. 15 years ago I was one of those people who didn't know where on earth to put an apostrophe, and it was hard not to feel vaguely insulted and rather embarrassed by the opening section's torrent of scorn and outrage.
If you persevere then you'll be rewarded by the middle sections which are much more fun, more fact-based, and as a result are more educational.
The end, again, slithers back into a rant against modern communication and a gloomy, miserable outlook that we're all doomed, laddy, to use emoticons and thus forsake the elegance of language itself.
Lynne says that this is not a textbook, nor a grammatical guide, and she recommends several other books for people who really want to know more about the hard rules (and soft rules) of written English.
"Eats, Shoots and Leaves..." is not such a book.
It's an entertainment.
It's probably most rewarding for those folk who enjoyed a "proper" education and who can smugly agree with every word Lynne says (probably without having to put those rules into practise very often).
For anyone who has experienced an education in the UK's comprehensive system in the last 25 years, this isn't a particularly helpful or inspiring volume. Try something like the Sunday Times "Wordpower" guide instead; which is full of concise information and which isn't full of judgmental comment.
Must try harder?
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Preaching to the converted!, 9 Feb 2007
It's amazing how much of a stir a book about punctuation can create! Written in a humorous style this book provides lessons in punctuating English. While these may be basic lessons that used to be taught in English Grammar in school the book clearly demonstrates that such lessons were never completely understood or are no longer taught. I liked Lynne Truss and her writing style in her sports columns and she has produced a competent book that makes a dry subject bearable. Unfortunately, the people likely to read this book are not the ones who needs its content most!
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Worth A Read, 26 April 2006
A useful book for tuning your writing skills without the bore of trundling through stuffy texts - if that's your thing.
I would ask of the would be reader to persevere through the introduction, and the chapter on apostrophes - which seems to go on interminably - when they may find, as I did, that the book picks up a little bit and offers up a small serving of humour along with valuable grammatical rules.
For a book about punctuation - let's be real here: how exciting can a book on punctuation be - it is entertaining; albeit, pompous.
I would never invite Lynne to my house.
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