Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation | 
 enlarge | Author: Lynne Truss
Publisher: Gotham
Category: Book
List Price: $12.00
Buy New: $2.22
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Avg. Customer Rating:  531 reviews
Sales Rank: 967
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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Condition: BRAND NEW BOOK!! New, unread paperback with black publisher's mark. We ship every book with delivery confirmation. Your satisfaction is our top priority. See our excellent feedback!
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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 526 more reviews...
 Grammar Police April 27, 2008
1 out of 1 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...
 Delightful! March 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I never thought that I'd ever find myself in a quiet, public room, sitting by the fireside after an afternoon of skiing, surrounded by other hotel guests, and suddenly laughing out loud while I read a book about, of all things, punctuation. However, despite the seemingly dull topic, I found this short little gem of a book to be wonderfully written and, at times, absolutely hilarious. Lynne Truss has a sense of humor that would probably enable her to make almost any topic you can think of funny. In this particular case, if you know the English language and you love to read, you'll find "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" to be truly delightful!
As delightfull as the joke abot the panda! March 21, 2008
Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a delightful, light hearted look at the good, the bad and the simply incorrect of English grammar, told in straight forward, funny, personal style. Anyone who cares about written English must read this brief yet detailed discussion of the when, where and why of placing commas, simi-colons and the dreaded colon. Lynn Truss abley demonstrates her knowledge of the subject as well as the language used in discussing it. A small book packed with valuable information on punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves should be on every writer's book shelf.
best "grammar" type book out there March 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have taught English all my professional life and currently teach writing at Miami Dade College (Wolfson Campus). This is the absolutely best book available to made not only punctuation but sentence creating more educationally available to students. It should be a textbook and not most of those other useless things filled with useless pages of exercises that don't do anything to improve students' (writers') ability to proof read their drafts. Eric Selby
Passionate about Punctuation March 4, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
"A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing." ~ pg. 9
It is probably not unusual to feel slightly uncomfortable while reading a book on grammar or punctuation. "How many mistakes have I made?" you may ask yourself. As someone who grew up in a country that called parentheses "brakets" I have reason to feel slightly more at home with some of the British usage.
For the most part the book is strangely entertaining. Is it funny? To be honest I laughed three times by page ten and then didn't again until page 63 and 92. So it is humorous in places. I must also say that I'm siding with anyone who hates the Oxford comma.
Lynne Truss spends a lot of time explaining its and it's. One third of the book is dedicated to the apostrophe. Which I must say had many good examples. The rest of the book is dedicated to colons, semicolons, question marks, exclamation marks, commas, hyphens, parentheses and quotation marks.
"The basic rule is straightforward and logical: when the punctuation relates to the quoted words it goes inside the inverted commas; when it relates to the sentence, it goes outside. Unless, of course, you are in America." ~ pg. 155
My only real complaint is that the publisher did not adapt the entire book for an American audience. Comments are made about the difference in usage, but otherwise you are left to fend for yourself.
~ The Rebecca Review
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