Review
From the book jacket: Many punctuation guides already exist explaining
the principles of the apostrophe; the comma; the semi-colon. These books do
their job but somehow punctuation abuse does not diminish. Why? Because people
who can't punctuate don't read those books! Of course they don't! They laugh at
books like those!
Eats, Shoots and Leaves adopts a more militant approach
and attempts to recruit an army of punctuation vigilantes: send letters back
with the punctuation corrected. Do not accept sloppy emails. Climb ladders at
dead of night with a pot of paint to remove the redundant apostrophe in "Video's
sold here".....
Comment: Every now and then a book comes along, seemingly from out of the
blue, and catches the public's interest. For example, last year
Natural
Cures 'They' Don't Want You...
Beyond the Book
Since the success of
Eats, Shoots and Leaves there have been a rash of
other books jumping on the bandwagon, such as
Shoots, Leaves and Eats (a
cookbook),
Eats, Shites and Leaves (a parody) and
Eats, Poops & Leaves
(a book of baby etiquette for new parents)! One of the more recent
releases is
Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies, which bills itself as the antidote
to Truss's book.
In addition
Eats, Shoots and Leaves has spawned the usual range of
calendars and other promotional items, and in July 2006 a version for children
will be published,
Eats Shoots & Leaves : Why, Commas Really Do Make a
Difference!
Listen to a 10-minute interview with Lynn Truss.
