Eats, Shoots and Leaves
By Brittney D., Stony Brook, NY
A while ago I was browsing at a bookstore and picked up Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Aware of its position on the bestseller list, I read the inside cover to see what all the fuss was about. Discovering it was about punctuation, I put it down, uninterested. Why would I want to read a book about punctuation? It wasn’t until recently that I picked up the book again and actually read it.
For “a zero tolerance approach to punctuation,” as the cover reads, I was astonished to find that the book is actually funny. Lynne Truss incorporates her witty British humor into a fantastic book that will never let you forget how to use an apostrophe again. She briefly describes the proper usage of most English grammatical elements while weaving in their history and examples of conflicts that have resulted.
Okay, this seems kind of boring (and at times it is), but Truss makes the “grammar lesson” more fun by including hilarious anecdotes. She also gives us some “horrifying” examples of misused grammar, including the movie “Two Weeks Notice,” which happens to be missing an apostrophe. Yes, “weeks” should be possessive.
Truss also encourages sticklers (a.k.a. grammar freaks) to unite against the degradation of grammar as text messages and IMs begin to take over our lives. She tries to persuade readers to pick up their pens and start a “punctuation revolution” by fixing the mistakes that we find on signs and displays. So, a revolutionary book about punctuation, huh? I give it a surprising two thumbs up.
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