I agree wholeheartedly with Louis Menand's excellent rewview of 28th June, 2004 for 'The New Yorker' (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004...).

This is a poorly written, unfunny diatribe against incorrect punctuation which suffers from the same disease it purports to cure. I can only presume it achieved such high sales owing to hype. (Truss's media savvy must have been a great aid in this respect.)

Further, as others have noted in Amazon reviews, it feels thoroughly unpleasant in tone. For example, on page 39, Lynne Truss appears to assert that it is "regrettable" for anyone to have a West Country accent. Equally, on page 44, she avers that the dialect word nobbut is "heart-chilling". No doubt she considers such remarks to be funny. However, any humour in this book is extremely contrived. An exceedingly over-rated work. ( )

It's hard to imagine, but this book on grammar had me laughing out loud on the NYC subway system. Nothing like a good cackle to turn everybody's head your way! This extremely humerous cri de couer from a grammar-lover will entertain you, and even educate you a little. You might even disagree, which is ok with the author - sometimes! ( )

I admit to being a bit fixated on grammar and punctuation. During boring meetings at work, one of my favorite activities is spotting grammatical errors on the speaker's charts. And I'm continually amazed by the ways in which the English language can be butchered. I don't claim to be perfect in this area, but I definitely make an effort to write correctly. So, this book resonated with me. In it, Lynne Truss outlines the basic rules governing usage of common punctuation like the apostrophe, comma, semicolon, colon, and quotation marks. She describes the changes in usage over time, and the differences between American and British conventions. And she does it all in a very accessible and humorous fashion. For example, consider The Law of Conservation of Apostrophes, described thus:
...this law states that a balance exists in nature: "For every apostrophe omitted from an it's, there is an extra one put into an its." Thus the number of apostrophes in circulation remains constant, even if this means we have double the reason to go and bang our heads against a wall. (p. 63)

Truss also considers how language will evolve as the written word shifts from a predominantly printed form to electronic media. She notes that our current punctuation system -- which was produced first for reading aloud, and later for print -- will undoubtedly undergo significant change, and that early signs of this can be seen in today's use of emoticons. She's actually quite positive about the inclusive nature of the internet, and encourages sticklers everywhere to embrace change and welcome new usage conventions that are sure to emerge. I'm OK with that -- as long as we don't start using apostrophes to indicate plurals. :-P ( )

While you may need to have a love for the written word in order to appreciate the role punctuation plays, you don't need it to love Lynne Truss' witty reference guide. I found it hard to read straight through, but I remember laughing out loud at some parts. She did a wonderful job of taking a subject that could be boring and made it delightful. Highly recommended for those whose pet peeve is the wrong use of an apostrophe.

With a great deal of flourish and humour, Truss explains punctuation, its usages, abuses and deviations. Historically, it really is quite fascinating, and I can only commiserate with the abuses she reports (English is my second language and even I am often appalled by what I have to read). I could, however, have done without the mental abuse: not everyone who makes a mistake is stupid and ignorant as she would have us believe - frankly, I found it out of place and would have enjoyed the book rather more if it hadn't been a constant thread. An otherwise useful tool, which I am sure to use in my editing practice (the rules also apply remarkably well to French!). ( )