It's a while since I've read this, admittedly, but I do remember finding it infuriating. Quite apart from anything else, I remember going through it with a pencil and finding it riddled with errors! Apparently I wasn't alone, because Louis Menand of The New Yorker was equally scathing and pointed out several mistakes. There were occasional moments of amusement, but on the whole I felt that if you're going to write a book deploring the state of grammar in this country the very least you can do is to make sure that it is error free itself.

I loved this book about punctuation and I adored its author, beginning with her severely offended sensibilities to her regretted interaction with Kerry-Anne (with the dusting of freckles) and finally to her more calmly reasoned advocacy of getting it right. Although I borrowed this book from the library, I must buy it to keep alongside Wodehouse, Stevens, and 'Lonesome Dove' on the 'comfort read' shelf.

Maybe it's because I suffer from a lack of punctuation know-how!>?>:_; but this book irked me! Maybe it's because I'm a linguist and, while I understand the purpose and value of punctuation, I just can't get all worked up about it. Yeah, we all gotta have good writing skillz. But, most sticklers for punctuation that I know are people who want to lord their intelligence over other people, but don't have much to recommend their intelligence other than a knowledge of when to use a semicolon. Chances are, if you're talking about a Panda, I'm going to know that it didn't walk into a restaurant, eat dinner, kill someone, and head back to China. Whatever. Read it if your punctuation is good and you want to feel smug.

Incidentally, someone actually gifted me this book, because they know I have lofty degrees and figured this might be a good book for smart people. Hah. Smart people like me need a good reference grammar and style manual, not a "funny" book on punctuation.

This book beat any other punctuation guide I've ever been forced to read. This was like reading a page (or 200) out of my own personal rants on bad usage of punctuation in public places.* I love the way Truss emphasizes that us sticklers feel affronted every time we see a movie title that ignores punctuation all together (e.g. Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Two Weeks Notice). It touches on the history of punctuation and why some of us use the oxford comma while some of us don't. It explains the differences between different kinds of commas, apostrophes and is absolutely RIDDLED with various forms of punctuation itself. (Note the lack of oxford comma in that last sentence?) This was the first book in a long time that had me laughing out loud and reading entire passages to a very patient boyfriend. Oh, and the mention of the apostrophe thusly made me smile wickedly:
"...if (say) the apostrophe is turning up in words such as 'Books', then that's a sure sign nobody knows how to use it any more; that it has outlasted its usefulness; it is like Tinkerbell with her little light fading, sustained only by elicited applause; it will ultimately fade, extinguish and die."

*I have an overwhelming urge to pencil in some changes on a sign in my bank that reads: "This phone is for Credit Union members only. If you have an emergency of course we will let you use it."