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Lunch » Tags » Books » Reviews » Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

76 Ratings: 3.6
A book by Lynne Truss

Who would have thought a book about punctuation could cause such a sensation? Certainly not its modest if indignant author, who began her surprise hit motivated by "horror" and "despair" at the current state of British usage: ungrammatical … see full wiki

Author: Lynne Truss
Publisher: Gotham
20 reviews about Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance...
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Quick Tip by . July 15, 2010
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Any book that can make grammar fun... wait, I think this is the only book. So cool. Really enjoyed this one.
Quick Tip by . July 04, 2010
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
A delight for a pedant old grammarian like myself. Lazy language -- born in America, migrating to every point on the globe -- needs to be eschewed wherever possible. Truss' observations are witty, delightful, and dead accurate. If you like speaking and writing "American," don't read this book. (LOL)
Quick Tip by . July 04, 2010
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
An entertaining and educational read!
Quick Tip by . July 02, 2010
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Definitely funny for anyone who has studied or struggled with English.
Quick Tip by . June 29, 2010
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
A wonderful, humorous little book - also extremely useful.
Quick Tip by . June 25, 2010
Fantastic book for those, like myself, with a comma dragon to conquer.
Quick Tip by . June 24, 2010
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Love English, this book cracks me up.
Quick Tip by . June 21, 2010
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Learned about this one from Levenger. Laughed like a maniac!
review by . June 20, 2010
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
I have never mastered punctuation. I have found it mind numbingly dull. With that said, I simply laughed out loud at this cranky little book. Truss even made me aware of what I was laughing at, which menas I learned a little, as well. I feel this book jumps out of the starting gate with a bang and took the lead as a "laugh-out-loud" candidate. I couldn't put it down but by the middle, it began running out of steam and frankly, I got a bit weary with it. I mean, how much more interest …
Quick Tip by . May 19, 2010
Fun & painless learning (and explained the Lands' End logo).
review by . January 23, 2010
Lynn Truss, a proud, self-proclaimed snobbish pedant, makes no bones about the fact that her short book, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" is really an extended essay on pedantry - a style book, a prescriptive grammar, a manifesto, a rant and, perhaps saddest of all, a eulogy - bemoaning the demise of the correct use of punctuation in the written English word today.       As a reader, writer and speaker who, frankly, takes pride in an extensive vocabulary and takes pains to …
review by . April 21, 2009
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 and reviled apostrophe   Granting unapproved possession of the carrot and the pea --   All the dangling expectations when the commas aren't in pairs --   All the chaos …
review by . December 23, 2007
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 and reviled apostrophe  Granting unapproved possession of the carrot and the pea --  All the dangling expectations when the commas aren't in pairs --  All the chaos that's …
review by . April 15, 2006
Lynne Truss is marvelous. Not only has she compiled a wonderfully easy-to-digest guide to proper punctuation, she also liberates punctuation from the starched collar crowd and provides an entertaining history as well.     I write a lot for a demanding audience; lawyers and judges. I often worry whether that comma is necessary - or should I be using a semicolon? By the way, thanks to Ms. Truss, I now know the fascinating histories of both the comma and the semicolon - and all …
review by . January 10, 2005
Truss's book is sometimes clever and sometimes tries too hard to be clever. The author does give generally sensible advice about punctuation, although I'm not planning to increase my use of colons and semicolons on her account.     Three disparate comments: 1. The book is too long--consider how much bang Strunk & White got for their buck in 71 pages. 2. The numerous differences between British and Americans terms for, and use of, punctuation probably occurred after the American …
review by . July 02, 2004
Just the other day I finished Eats, Shoots & Leaves - The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. You can draw one of two conclusions from this. Either I'm getting really serious about my writing, or I've gone over the edge and started reading books on arcane points of grammer and writing. I'd like to think it's the first of the two options, with a bent toward reading some really funny stuff!Lynne Truss is English, and has written a book that took many by surprise. Ranked #5 on Amazon …
review by . June 30, 2004
EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES is a little breath of fresh air and while it does not seem a book that merits all the hype it is receiving, it is most certainly an entertaining read and an embarrassing reminder to those of us who write and read (or is that "read, and write"?) that punctuation is a notable contributor to the success or failure of the written word. How many times have we been stopped cold in the progress of an interesting tale when we are confronted with punctuation errors that are so glaringly …
review by . May 19, 2004
I'm a stickler for grammar and enjoy finding grammatical errors, typos, and other funny goofs with the English language. The book hasn't been in America very long and already it has reached the coveted bestseller lists, and this despite retaining its British syntax. In reading the introduction, I was pleased to find the publisher had decided not to change the UK spellings, phrases, and even punctuation rules in the American version of the book. Hurrah! It would have been a nice touch to add a note …
review by . April 17, 2004
Eats Shoots & Leaves is a very helpful reference book especially if you have to write a lot of papers for school.   This book has shown me a former student how much I did not know about punctuation and that is why I enjoyed it. I thought that an apostrophe only indicated possession. I also learned that an apostrophe can be used to indicate time or quantity or the omission of letters. Lynne Truss explains the functions and usage of common punctuation marks like the apostrophe, comma, semicolon, …
review by . April 13, 2004
It is a good thing that a book on punctuation is a best-seller; it's just a pity it's this one.     All the good work Lynne Truss does in conveying her message (viz., punctuation matters) is undone by her hectoring tone, dismal attempts at humour (made worse by a tendency to point out the punch-lines) and, in the final analysis, lack of credibility: having set out rules she then reverses over them, makes egregious appeals to authority and, every now and then, just gets things …
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