Customer Reviews
Funny and educational - By: Alex Ireland, 26 Mar 2008 
This books is far more than its title's amusing amphibology. It's funny, educational & very readable.
I workin software engineering & like many software engineers, I frequent the spelling & grammar checker. I frequent it regularly. In fact, my life would be quite tough without it.
Nowin software engineering, there's nothing worse than looking at awful code that doesn't follow anything close to a resemblance of normal engineering standards. It's a surreal feeling that has this offensive nauseousness about it. The frustrations are simply indescribable to anybody who hasn't had the misfortune to workin the industry. Now, we software engineers sometimes think we are alonein experiencing these emotions, as perhaps they are the result of our innate pedantic propensities. We think the rest of human species don't suffer as much as we do. I mean who else has to look at spaghetti code?
So, it really made me laugh to hear Lynne Truss describe her innate frustations & intolerance of poor punctuation.
The English language, just like Software Engineering, has a clear logical set of punctuation rules. We just seem too ignorant & lazy to follow them. The English language, again just like Software Engineering, has its purists (or sticklersin Truss lexicon) whose stomachs squelch coming across asinine errors & sooner or later the pedant's affliction will manifest.
Truss navigates through every punctutation edifice. The comma, the apostrophe, the dash & all the usual suspects are explained clearly, succintly & with the utmost deference. Each one getting its own separate chapter. She shows acumen, acuity & peppers explainations with quirky & funny anecdotes of incorrect usage.
But it's Truss' reaction & feelings to poor punctuation that make this book funny. She's absolutely livid. Anyone with even a small bit of pendantry about anything at all will empathise & laugh.
My appreciation English of punctuation grew from reading this book. I'll still make errors - no doubt a few arein this review!
But it's a very good book. My only critism would be that I felt it was a little bit on the short side. A few edits & it would have been no more than an appendixin a grammar book or a good quality dictionary. But you certainly wouldn't get the laughsin such an appendix!
You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way - By: John A. Launders, 28 Jan 2008 How does a book about how to use commas & colons properly have lodged itself at No 1 on bestseller lists? Maybe Lynne Truss' books success shows that it is not just a few reactionaries who care. Truss agrees it's selling off the internet & stickler-types probably don't do their shopping on the internet. Lynne Truss wonders if there might be readers whose higher education has given them at least a guilty conscience about what they have not been taught, suddenly thinking that perhaps it does matter & I wouldn't mind knowing this stuff. Those copies stackedin Waterstone's might show that there are plenty of people who want to be, as Lynne Truss puts it, 'virtuous'.
While Truss says that 'despair' gave this book its impetus, she does not sound despairing eitherin print orin person. The title itself is a joke, about an irate panda who walks into a cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun & fires two shots into the air. The waiter finds the explanation for this erratic behaviorin a badly punctuated wildlife manual which the bear leaves behind: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots & leaves.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! tells you the rules, but is also full of jokes & anecdotes. It is a sort of celebration of punctuation. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good jobin its humble way. She speaks of the delights of the semi-colon with relish. She has listened to the man from the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, it exists) but does not sound like a member of any such group. "I was so worried when I wrote the book that people would assume that anyone interestedin this subject would be small-minded". --Lynne Truss.
I don't really know where punctuation is going. But this is a very good moment to look at it & see what state it's in. The internet & emails have come along very conveniently for people who didn't learn punctuation & can therefore get by. Punctuation helps give rhythm & a tone of voice to writing, & Truss thinks it no accident that readers of emails often find it difficult to pick up the tone of the person who's written it, with all those dashes. The grace notes get lopped off & it becomes very bald. So people start needing exclamation marks & capital letters, desperately trying to express a tone of voice.
You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way - By: John A. Launders, 28 Jan 2008 How does a book about how to use commas & colons properly have lodged itself at No 1 on bestseller lists? Maybe Lynne Truss' books success shows that it is not just a few reactionaries who care. Truss agrees it's selling off the internet & stickler-types probably don't do their shopping on the internet. Lynne Truss wonders if there might be readers whose higher education has given them at least a guilty conscience about what they have not been taught, suddenly thinking that perhaps it does matter & I wouldn't mind knowing this stuff. Those copies stackedin Waterstone's might show that there are plenty of people who want to be, as Lynne Truss puts it, 'virtuous'.
While Truss says that 'despair' gave this book its impetus, she does not sound despairing eitherin print orin person. The title itself is a joke, about an irate panda who walks into a cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun & fires two shots into the air. The waiter finds the explanation for this erratic behaviorin a badly punctuated wildlife manual which the bear leaves behind: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots & leaves.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! tells you the rules, but is also full of jokes & anecdotes. It is a sort of celebration of punctuation. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good jobin its humble way. She speaks of the delights of the semi-colon with relish. She has listened to the man from the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, it exists) but does not sound like a member of any such group. "I was so worried when I wrote the book that people would assume that anyone interestedin this subject would be small-minded". --Lynne Truss.
I don't really know where punctuation is going. But this is a very good moment to look at it & see what state it's in. The internet & emails have come along very conveniently for people who didn't learn punctuation & can therefore get by. Punctuation helps give rhythm & a tone of voice to writing, & Truss thinks it no accident that readers of emails often find it difficult to pick up the tone of the person who's written it, with all those dashes. The grace notes get lopped off & it becomes very bald. So people start needing exclamation marks & capital letters, desperately trying to express a tone of voice.
Lynne Truss Has Got A Little List - By: Linda Bulger, 12 Jan 2008 As someday it may happen that a victim must be found,
She's got a little list -- she's got a little list
Of illiterate offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed -- who never would be missed!
There's the greengrocer's redundant & reviled apostrophe
Granting unapproved possession of the carrot & the pea --
All the dangling expectations when the commas aren'tin pairs --
All the chaos that's createdin semantical affairs --
All editors eliminating semis from your list --
They'd none of 'em be missed -- they'd none of 'em be missed!
She's got 'em on the list -- she's got 'em on the list;
And they'll none of 'em be missed -- they'll none of 'em be missed.
There's the muzzy-headed journalist whose phrases roam like sheep,
Who thinks that commas don't exist -- she's got him on her list!
And the pedants whose subordinated clauses bring on sleep,
They never would be missed -- they never would be missed!
There's the manuscript that always gives infuriating pause
By the wrongful punctuation of the inoffensive clause,
And ambiguous intentions when a colon should be placed
But the author for some reason holds that markin great distaste,
And the cavalier exclaimer who from screaming can't desist --
I don't think he'd be missed -- I'm sure he'd not be missed!
She's got him on the list -- she's got him on the list;
And I don't think he'd be missed -- I'm sure he'll not be missed!
And the sentences that ought to end but will not mind the stop
So the readers lose the gist -- she's got 'em on the list!
And the badly punctuated placard shilling for a shop,
They'd none of 'em be missed -- they'd none of 'em be missed.
And the foes of readability with dashes everywhere,
They inch alongin fits & starts, they make you want to swear,
The intolerant authorities whose standards are not yours,
Those moral weaklings oozing indecision from their pores,
It's a stickler's job to see they all are placed upon the list,
For they'd none of 'em be missed -- they'd none of 'em be missed!
In homage to THE MIKADO; libretto by W.S. Gilbert & music by Arthur Sullivan.
Linda Bulger, 2008
"Lynne Truss brings shame to grammar buffs" - THIS WOMAN DOES NOT REPRESENT US! - By: C. Clarke, 14 Dec 2007 
All this shows us is that Lynne Truss really should get out more. I can sort of tolerate the snooty & condesending tonein which it's written (not to mention horrendously boring), but the personification of apostrophes really is a step too far. This book should've been called "An Attack Against Dyslexia, by an Obsessive Compulsive". A good friend of mine, a grammar buff no less, read it thinking it may be something that'd interest him. He too gave up a few pagesin describing it as "Just irritating" & concluding "Lynne Truss brings shame to grammar buffs."
