A panda walks into a diner. He orders a sandwhich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots into the air.
“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes its way towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
“I’m a panda,” says the bear. “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.”
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Thus begins Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves, a wonderful discussion on punctuation. It’s certainly not a grammar text, although it is quite helpful with the most important rules. It talks of the history and future of punctuation, highlighting the importance of each mark of punctuation in properly communicating thought. Punctuation gives our language rhythm and clarification, and Ms. Truss gives an entertaining (many is the funny story) and enlightening diatribe.
I highly recommend it to anyone who, like me, despairs over apostrophes unexplainably showing up in the middle of a word or gets physical satisfaction from seeing a properly used semi-colon. I also recommend it for anyone who is sitting there, reading this post and wondering what the big deal is about a bunch of squiggly lines that the staff of this site are constantly harping on you to get straight.
I enjoyed this book as well. Even more so when I stumbled across a few typos in the text!
I wish more people took it upon themselves to buy this book. While it might typically be considered a dry topic, I found it to be quite readable, and ever-so-useful. (Despite that I still can’t claim to have mastered the semi-colon.. that’s one tricky bastard.) And not just for writers! I’m continually horrified with texts that are passed my way in a professional capacity. I’m endlessly trying to stifle that inner-editor at the office.