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No title (2003)

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15,625333338 (3.8)287
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.… (more)
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (2003)

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» See also 287 mentions

English (326)  Italian (2)  Hebrew (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (330)
Showing 1-5 of 326 (next | show all)
Grammer
  BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
Alright. A reference book with some funny bits. I have marked the good grammatical bits. ( )
  SteveMcI | Dec 21, 2023 |
Seldom have I felt so much second-hand embarrassment reading anything. Truss' pedantry is only matched by her ignorance of the language she purports to protect. This is just a sad, elitist, and pretentious book tailor-made for people who have nothing better to do than to feel better than others by uncritically adhering to trivial and largely arbitrary rules of style. It is full of opinions that betray a worrying lack of empathy toward the ordinary Briton and a lot of the author's "witticisms" sound either lame or deranged. I have quite literally thrown this one in the trash and I really hope no soul picks it up on its way to the incinerator. ( )
  Edwin_Oldham | Nov 15, 2023 |
SUPER FUNNY, and also, I learnt stuff like how the commas are super important and if you move them around, they might create new biblical interpretations: For example

“verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
vs
“Verily I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” (P74, Truss)

The former the comma after “thee” is the Protestant interpretation of the Bible which skips over the concept of Purgatory, while the second with the comma after “they” means to Catholics that Paradise is promised sometime later, after Purgatory. The placement of the comma changes the meaning of the religious text. The more you know! ( )
  enlasnubess | Oct 2, 2023 |
An absolute delight of a book.

Lynne has managed to take a rather dull and tedious subject - that of punctuation - and made it interesting and fun to learn.

Yes, it can come across as nothing but a curmudgeon having a rant, but it's an intelligent curmudgeon having an amusing rant that is very educational.

We are now in an age where the written word is being used more than any other time in history to communicate; most people barely talk any more, preferring to text, or email, rather than pick up the phone or visit in person.   At no other time in history has the correct meaning and interpretation of the written word been more important, while punctuation, which gives the meaning and interpretation to the written word, is so utterly neglected and misunderstood.

Yes, punctuation is important, and while some of it is art, a lot of it is not:
... is there any art involved in using the apostrophe?   No.   Using the apostrophe correctly is a mere negative proof: it tells the world you are not a thicko.


Whether or not you think your punctuation could use a little housekeeping, this is a fun and interesting book to read and you will learn a few things while reading it: well worth it! ( )
  5t4n5 | Aug 9, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 326 (next | show all)
The first punctuation mistake in “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” (Gotham; $17.50), by Lynne Truss, a British writer, appears in the dedication, where a nonrestrictive clause is not preceded by a comma. It is a wild ride downhill from there.
added by SR510 | editThe New Yorker, Louis Menand (Jun 28, 2004)
 
When [Truss] stops straining at lawks-a-mussy chirpiness and analyzes punctuation malpractice, she is often persuasive
 
The passion and fun of her arguments are wonderfully clear. Here is someone with abiding faith in the idea that ''proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear thinking.''
 
Lynne Truss's book is (stay with this sentence, and remember the function of punctuation is to 'tango the reader into the pauses, inflections, continuities and connections that the spoken word would convey') as much an argument for clear thinking as it is a pedantic defence of obsolete conventions of written language.
added by mikeg2 | editThe Guardian, Nigel Williams (Nov 9, 2003)
 

» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Truss, Lynneprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Byrnes, PatIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
McCourt, FrankForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nunn, JamesCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Dedication
To the memory of the striking Bolshevik printers of St Petersburg who, in 1905, demanded to be paid the same rate for punctuation marks as for letters, and thereby directly precipitated the first Russian Revolution
First words
Either this will ring bells for you, or it won't.
Quotations
On the page, punctuation performs its grammatical function, but in the mind of the reader it does more than that. It tells the reader how to hum the tune.
But I can't help feeling that our punctuation system, which has served the written word with grace and ingenuity for centuries, must not be allowed to disappear without a fight.
A panda walks into a cafe.

He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Last words
Disambiguation notice
This is not the same work as:

1.  "Eats, Shoots and Leaves: Why, Commas Do Make a Difference!", which is the children's version of the book;

2. the various calendars inspired by this book;

3. "Eats, Shoots and Leaves: Cutting a Dash", which is a recording of a radio show associated with the book.
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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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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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