Bifrost
09-04-2006, 05:44 PM
I was given this book as a gift and I was a little confused to begin with. First of all, I am not a serious reader; I read, but not quickly and not often. To be given a book about pandas was just a little odd. Once I had read the back cover, I was chuckling heartily and was happy that this book had been given to me - an almost evangelical grammar pedant.
I began the book and giggled often throughout the first chapter. This was a description of the very type of anger I feel whenever I see a sign like "apple's and orange's $2/kg" or "CD's & DVD's". It does make me want to paint over the incorrect apostrophe; it does make me want to shake the sign writer who obviously has no idea that each punctuation mark has a correct and an incorrect use.
Lynne Truss had, in the space of 1 short chapter, at once impressed me with her fervor and had me laughing along. I thought I was in for a rollicking old time...and then it happened: Chapter 2. The book which had started so well began to degenerate into explanation. Though certainly not as dry and painful as your average style guide, Eats, Shoots & Leaves is not a laugh a minute. Perhaps a laugh an hour. Yes, I think I managed a laugh an hour.
The chapters following the first were just not as witty. The author had found herself needing to explain punctuation and lacking a light-hearted way in which to do it. Sure, some of her examples were humorous, some of the history was very interesting, though unfortunately for her end-result the subject of punctuation is nigh impossible to make entertaining.
With this in mind, Lynne Truss has done pretty bloody well. I read the book through and despite the fact that it took me considerably longer than the average J.K. Rowling or David Gemmell novel, it educated me on the one punctuation mark with which I have always had trouble: the semi-colon.
Not that I have never used it, on the contrary, I will generally bung one in when I can't decide whether to use a full-stop or a comma. This is not exactly the right way in which to use a semi-colon though is it? In fact what the hell is a semi-colon for anyway? If I need a pause, I will use a comma. If I need to separate a list, I will use several commas, then place a nice "and" before the final item or instead use a proper bulleted list. I do, however, quite like semi-colons; (see?) perhaps it is my own need to feel superior to other writers that has always drawn me to the little-used mark.
I would almost have felt a kindred spirit in Lynne Truss had she not been so overtly superior in the tone of her explanations, that I felt quite disturbed. Still, she taught me to stop being afraid of the semi-colon and now I use it with gay abandon*; sprinkling the glorious things everywhere; fairly saturating my writing with dots above commas. It's really quite liberating.
As a tribute to my new-found semi-colonic freedom, I can say that Eats, Shoots & Leaves is an excellent guide to the use of correct punctuation in English. Just humorous enough to keep you going and just serious enough to get you on the right track in your writing (or sign writing).
So perhaps the instant appeal of this book will not be apparent to the grammar and punctuation philistine, however, this book should be compulsory reading not only for all English-speaking highschool students & their teachers, but for every damned shop owner and sign writer in the English-speaking world.
-- Bifrost
* This is not a comment on gay people, nor a claim that they have any greater penchant for abandonment than straight people
I began the book and giggled often throughout the first chapter. This was a description of the very type of anger I feel whenever I see a sign like "apple's and orange's $2/kg" or "CD's & DVD's". It does make me want to paint over the incorrect apostrophe; it does make me want to shake the sign writer who obviously has no idea that each punctuation mark has a correct and an incorrect use.
Lynne Truss had, in the space of 1 short chapter, at once impressed me with her fervor and had me laughing along. I thought I was in for a rollicking old time...and then it happened: Chapter 2. The book which had started so well began to degenerate into explanation. Though certainly not as dry and painful as your average style guide, Eats, Shoots & Leaves is not a laugh a minute. Perhaps a laugh an hour. Yes, I think I managed a laugh an hour.
The chapters following the first were just not as witty. The author had found herself needing to explain punctuation and lacking a light-hearted way in which to do it. Sure, some of her examples were humorous, some of the history was very interesting, though unfortunately for her end-result the subject of punctuation is nigh impossible to make entertaining.
With this in mind, Lynne Truss has done pretty bloody well. I read the book through and despite the fact that it took me considerably longer than the average J.K. Rowling or David Gemmell novel, it educated me on the one punctuation mark with which I have always had trouble: the semi-colon.
Not that I have never used it, on the contrary, I will generally bung one in when I can't decide whether to use a full-stop or a comma. This is not exactly the right way in which to use a semi-colon though is it? In fact what the hell is a semi-colon for anyway? If I need a pause, I will use a comma. If I need to separate a list, I will use several commas, then place a nice "and" before the final item or instead use a proper bulleted list. I do, however, quite like semi-colons; (see?) perhaps it is my own need to feel superior to other writers that has always drawn me to the little-used mark.
I would almost have felt a kindred spirit in Lynne Truss had she not been so overtly superior in the tone of her explanations, that I felt quite disturbed. Still, she taught me to stop being afraid of the semi-colon and now I use it with gay abandon*; sprinkling the glorious things everywhere; fairly saturating my writing with dots above commas. It's really quite liberating.
As a tribute to my new-found semi-colonic freedom, I can say that Eats, Shoots & Leaves is an excellent guide to the use of correct punctuation in English. Just humorous enough to keep you going and just serious enough to get you on the right track in your writing (or sign writing).
So perhaps the instant appeal of this book will not be apparent to the grammar and punctuation philistine, however, this book should be compulsory reading not only for all English-speaking highschool students & their teachers, but for every damned shop owner and sign writer in the English-speaking world.
-- Bifrost
* This is not a comment on gay people, nor a claim that they have any greater penchant for abandonment than straight people