I found the title intriguing and also the author’s name. I also enjoyed the first words in the Introduction:

“Either this will ring bells for you, or it won’t. A printed banner has appeared on the concourse of a petrol station near to where I live. “Come inside,” it says, “for CD’s, VIDEO’s, DVD’s, and Book’s.”

Such incorrect usage of the apostrophe and it just makes me squirm. I have the same feeling about “its” and “it’s”. I vividly recall learning English grammar at school. It was exceedingly painful at the time, because the teacher was rather boring and this carried over to the class. Yawning was very common then too. I remember how correct usage of the apostrophe was always rammed down our throats. Now, with the internet, correct punctuation appears to be taking a back seat.

From the first page this was indeed a thought-provoking book. I loved the author’s punchy style but I was intrigued first of all to find out from where the title originated. A reference to this was made earlier on in the book:

“True, one occasionally hears a marvellous punctuation-fan joke about a panda who [my addition - shouldn’t this be ‘which’ because a panda is not a family pet?] ‘eats, shoots and leaves’….”

So on checking the acknowledgements I see that Nigel Hall was responsible for this. After a certain amount of research, I assume this is the joke? It’s rather good anyway.

“A panda walks into a restaurant, sits down and orders a sandwich. After he finishes eating the sandwich, the panda pulls out a gun and shoots the waiter, and then stands up to go.

“Hey!” shouts the manager. “Where are you going? You just shot my waiter and you didn't pay for your sandwich!”

The panda yells back at the manager, “Hey man, I am a PANDA! Look it up!”

The manager opens his dictionary and sees the following definition for panda: “A tree-dwelling marsupial of Asian origin, characterised by distinct black and white colouring. Eats shoots and leaves.”

Ms Truss starts with the unfortunate apostrophe. She just sees glaring errors everywhere: on buses, billboards, in newspapers, public institutions like the British Library, you name it, there are errors everywhere.

As an example, a headline in the paper states: “Dead sons photos may be released”. How many sons are there one wonders?

When Ms Truss was on Radio 4 making a series of programmes about punctuation, she met John Richards from the Apostrophe Protection Society. Imagine that. The apostrophe has become alive and finally reached “animal” status. The author questions:

“Why did the Apostrophe Protection Society not have a militant wing? Could I start one? Where do you get balaclavas?”

It continues in this style, attacking all those who misuse commas, full stops (period US), semi-colons, etc. It's all an outrage to her and she throws in wonderful anecdotes to illustrate her point of view.

Under commas, I especially liked the Oxford comma. A typical example was “The flag is red, white, and blue.” The comma after white; in Britain, we normally leave it out but there are those who prefer to leave it in. I suppose this is somewhat pedantic?

Or,

A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.

It’s remarkable really how the comma can actually change the sense of a sentence so dramatically. I confess that I’ve never really thought of that before.

When we arrive at the semicolon, there’s a very good example with George Bernard Shaw. I agree with Ms Truss, we would obviously look on his use of this punctuation as sheer insanity but he’s dealing with T.E. Lawrence, who he refers to as “Luruns” (sounds like a place to me as we have “Laruns” not too far away from where I live in France). Mr Shaw believes that Lawrence is a liar:

“You will see [writes Shaw] that your colons before buts and the like are contra-indicated in my scheme, and leave you without anything in reserve for the dramatic occasions mentioned above. You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of mental defectiveness, probably induced in camp life.”

Ms. Truss laments on the arrival of the e-mail and the vocabulary that has come into being because of that. She blames the internet for all the books on line and wonders if the book will still be around in twenty years. She also makes references to the printed word:

“…The book remains static and fixed … Holding the book, we are aware of posterity and continuity. Knowing that the printed word is always edited, typeset and proofread before it reaches us; we appreciate its literary authority. Having paid money for it (often), we have a sense of investment and a pride of ownership, not to mention a feel of general virtue.”

Certain sections of the book just show a comma on the line. I rather liked that too; a fleuron of sorts? It’s probably best to pretend that it’s a variation of a flower or leaf.

I really could go on about this book but suffice it to say, I just thoroughly enjoyed Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It stands up for punctuation and correct punctuation at that. It’s all part of our heritage and must not get lost in time. It’s also very amusing.

All said and done, I recommend this book to everyone, regardless of their age. I'll no doubt go back to it from time to time just to re-enjoy it.

Have you ever heard of Sir Roger Casement, Irish insurrectionist sentenced to death in 1916, or, about the Jameson Raid on the Transvaal in 1896? The first was hanged because of a comma* (the lack of one in the Act which was used to sentence him had left its legal interpretations open to all sorts of contradictions), the other was an 'unfortunate' military operation, caused by a badly punctuated telegram... These are extreme examples, of course, but, still, they show that punctuation, well, matter!

The author could be accused of being a stickler, and, to some degree (?) she is. She is strongly concerned about defending the 'True' rules of punctuation and grammar, something which, not being a prescriptivist myself (I love writing -poetry as a hobby, blogging, book reviews...- yet can't care less about such pettiness when it comes to 'rules'...) and so her recommendations on how to punctuate what and how and when and what-not flew over my head.

Having said that, I found this read deeply engrossing, not as an instruction manual (which it mostly purports to be) but as a treasure chest of historical nuggets. I love trivia, I love history, and this book contains plenty. One example: did you know that the comma was first used by Greek dramaturges? It was, back then, a simple dot, those height on the line indicated to actors the length of the passage that would follow, and so when to better control their breath. In fact, it will acquire its modern shape and place only in the 16th century, 'thanks' to an Italian printer.

Yes, punctuation matter: it reflects a clear thought, clarify syntax, can be a sign of basic courtesy as much as its flouting a sign of ignorance (personally, I've always been amazed at the number of people not seemingly knowing the difference between a 's' to mark the plural, and, a 's' apostrophe to mark the possessive). But, again, who cares? As long as messages are understood, it is, as every cultural tool, certainly not written in stone and should be (*must* be) open to changes and evolution!

As such, then, I think that if Lynne Truss does here a fantastic job at retelling its history, she also does a very poor one at offering it a future. Her moral panic when it comes to SMS and other creative language born in our digital age, for instance, is completely unwarranted (and, for those interested, I strongly recommend an alternative viewpoint: Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 by David Crystal).


*: I first spelled that 'coma'... Spelling matters too indeed, as Zain pointed to me in the comments below! ;)

4 Stars!

*Read for non-fiction book club.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a short non-fiction book about punctuation and aims to explain why punctuation really does matter. The author talks about how the rules of punctuation has become more lax over the years, and later in the book she explains why we shouldn’t allow this to happen.

I read this for a non-fiction book club, and I probably wouldn’t have picked this up on my own. I’d always enjoyed English, writing, reading, and grammar in school, so this book was right my alley.

This sounds like it could be 200 pages of boring textbook writing, but honestly, I was surprised by how much humor was in the book, and even more pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Even from the title, we can tell the author has a sense of humor and she continues that writing throughout the book. Yes, there were examples of all the different rules for punctuation marks, but I never did find this boring.

I really enjoyed the chapters about the apostrophes, commas, and the ellipses, because I tend to use those…a lot… The other chapters were informative, but I preferred the first half of the book overall. I also loved how the author compared the punctuation marks to musical notation, so musicians know HOW to play the music…not just the black notes on the page.

The book is broken into chapters, and each chapter address a specific punctuation mark.

-Apostrophe
-Comma
-Colon
-Semi-colon
-Hyphen
-Period
-Explanation Point
-Brackets and Ellipse

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, but English was also one of my favorite school subjects growing up. I think anyone who teaches or does anything with reading and writing would enjoy the humor in this book.

There was a part at the beginning of the book that stood out to me about talking about when and how to properly correct people about grammar, and how it can come off being rude. Personally, I don’t call people out about their grammar, or really anything that could potentially embarrass them--unless I need to defend someone. It would be interesting to see if correcting people on the spot would help our issues with grammar or not. I think it has a lot to do with texting and emailing that has made grammar rules more lax and people being afraid as coming off too angry or formal in an email, so they write like the would talk. I was told as a teacher that it’s hard to express emotion and personality in emails to students and parents, and to be careful when writing those types of correspondences because it could seem like I’m angry or short, so I think to accommodate for that, people are trying to make emails seem more personable when emailing and texting. (That’s just my opinion, and I notice that I do that as well.)

I liked the book quite a bit and I’m glad it was a choice for book club.

A pretty good book for starters...

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves is such a good read! Lynne Truss brings so much humour, and wittiness throughout her book, as well as, brilliantly explaining the simple, and complex uses/rules of punctuation.

If you want to learn about punctuation, and have a good laugh along the way; look no further!

If you lament the illiteracy of the world, you can commisserate with this book. Here you will find sympathy for the pain of abused punctuation.

For any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word “Book’s” with an apostrophe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the stages of bereavement, though greatly accelerated. First there is shock. Within seconds, shock gives way to disbelief, disbelief to pain, and pain to anger. Finally (and this is where the analogy breaks down), anger gives way to a righteous urge to perpetrate an act of criminal damage with the aid of a permanent marker.

It’s short book written by a Briton, filled with humor but also concise rules of punctuation. She also addresses American punctuation, which is slightly different. I knew about these rules but hadn’t known some marks have different names. Highly recommended for any writer, editor, or grammar nazi.

We read privately, mentally listening to the writer’s voice and translating the writer’s thoughts. The book remains static and fixed; the reader journeys through it. Picking up the book in the first place entails an active pursuit of understanding. Holding the book, we are aware of posterity and continuity. Knowing that the printed word is always edited, typeset and proof-read before it reaches us, we appreciate its literary authority. Having paid money for it (often), we have a sense of investment and a pride of ownership, not to mention a feeling of general virtue.



Book Blog

a snootily superior screed on the importance of proper punctuation misspells the word 'pedants' in the blurb.

let the headdeskery begin.

Lynne Truss' book 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' was, as I recall, a big seller when published more than 20 years ago back in 2003.

'Eats' is as it says - a zero tolerance approach to punctuation. It's not an instruction guide for correct punctuation, nor is it merely a collection of entertaining examples (of which they are many) when punctuation goes wrong.

Moreover, Truss' book is all about the history and importance of correct and meaningful punctuation. That is to say, punctuation that ensures it improves the sentence in terms of meaning and flow.

The world of punctuation is a confusing one, what with the differences between British and American punctuation rules, various other international variations and then of course, it's an evolving world with new ideas and developments.

Truss' book is an entertaining one which leaves us firmly with the message, that correct and well thought through punctuation gives us the gift of meaning and expression - the ability to clearly convey exactly what we intended. Conversely, poor or inadequate punctuation can change the intended meaning and ultimately results in what Truss refers to as intellectual impoverishment.

Whilst at times Truss' book can feel a little like a conservative howl against change and rule breaking, in the end - her key message about the value of punctuation to literature, effective communication and meaningful writing cannot really be argued with.

I only wish my own grasp of the rules of punctuation was a little better "must try harder".

“Proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear thinking.”


Language is a beautiful thing and we usually fail to appreciate all the little intricacies that make it such a rich and complex tool to communicate. I never fully appreciated punctuation until I came across this book. Lynne Truss does a great job mixing humour with educative content, outlining all the rules about punctuation marks alongside giving us a brief overview of their history.

Reading about the importance of punctuation and the rich history behind them and the way they beautifully decorate what we write can be a great eye-opener to appreciate these little symbols we oftentimes overlook. The author also turns our attention to the fact that our collective knowledge of these rules is in danger, since we continually disregard them and even our education system doesn't put enough emphasis in making sure we know the ins and outs of punctuation.

I'll make sure to refer back to this book whenever I need a refresher on certain aspects of punctuation.

I'm a snob. In the comfortable safety of my desk chair, I'm audibly mocking you if you dare use "your" for "you're" (my biggest punctuation pet peeve) or if your emails are peppered with unnecessary exclamation points and an overabundance of emoticons. I like the smiley in IM conversations; I hate it in email. It's just a thing. When I meet a pretty young thing that I might want to break bread with on occasion, I'm filled with anxiety over that first email: will she write in complete sentences with capital letters and periods and paragraphs, or will I be left reading a ton of LOLs and dashes and ellipses? The bad email is going to seriously hamper this relationship.

It's with that kind of word nerd superiority complex that I went into Lynne Truss' short book on punctuation. I'm not a stickler, mind, but I do know when things aren't written properly and there are certain crimes against grammar that I just can't abide. Even though I'm sometimes a lazy writer here, I know the problems. I've been known to throw an extra comma where it doesn't belong, and when I'm furiously typing, the "there", "their" and "they're" usage can get hairy. In the last week alone, I've edited recent posts over and over again -- correcting tense and errant apostrophes. Eats, Shoots & Leaves has only succeeded in ramping up my snobbery and intensity.

I politely chided a friend in the comments of a post because she had made a grammar error and she didn't even catch it. That riled me up even more. It's driving me crazy that some old entries in here imported funny and now there are question marks masquerading as apostrophes and single quotes (not to mention the number of dead links, but that's more web nerd than parts of speech geekery isn't it?). Even now, I'm obsessing over whether I'm using punctuation correctly in this piece. I've got two hyphens impersonating a dash and I've got colons and semi-colons up there that I'm pretty sure I'm using the right way but can anyone ever be completely sure? Sigh.

But, yes, I'm a snob. My blogroll is filled with bloggers who are actually writers or aspire to be. If you're going to use words, I want you to have a way with them. I love that most of you understand the importance of setting off proper titles of books and films (whether it be in quotes, italics, or the web person's favorite: the bold) and that you probably are wondering whether or not the period or question mark goes inside or outside the direct quote marks. Ms. Truss makes me feel a little stuffy about caring about such things but there is definitely a comfort in knowing I'm not alone. I appreciated most the history of punctuation she peppered throughout the book along with her very dry British humor and the delight with which she plays with her own writing, saving the colon and semi-colon until she is actually talking about them; keeping the hyphen and dash under-wraps and then exploding with them at the perfect time.

If you're a word nerd, you must read Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Lynne Truss - image from Alchetron

This is a delightful screed on the demise of punctuation in contemporary expression. Truss bemoans the loss of knowledge or of interest in proper use of language. Truss is a Brit and the usages have not been modified for the American edition of the book. This is a must, an enjoyable and educational read for anyone who cares about the English language. In addition to gripes about the slovenly way that we write, Truss offers some history on punctuation, which is most welcome.

A fun and geeky read. Although I have, of course, heard of this book, referenced it, and enjoyed its panda joke for years, I surprisingly have never read it until now. I enjoyed it primarily for its humor and history. And who doesn't like a quick refresher on the persnickety rules of punctuation? (Also, I really loved the typing tips for those pesky dashes).

On another note: I thought I would be able to use this in my classrooms, and I suppose I still could. It has helpful lists and examples of the basics of punctuation in each section. But overall, this book seems to be speaking to the nerd vs the novice. The jokes are directed at grammar Nazis, for one. What's more, the info found in the book, although helpful and witty, could easily be found online in more accessible means for students. So although I don't think I'd use the book in class, I would certainly recommend it to students who want extra grammar help in this area. And I myself very much enjoyed this quick, entertaining, and informative read.

#teamoxfordcomma