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

by Truss, Lynne

• ISBN13: 9781592402038
• ISBN10: 1592402038
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-04-11
• Publisher: PENGUIN

Summary

A bona fide publishing phenomenon, Lynne Truss’s now classic #1 New York Timesbestseller Eats, Shoots & Leavesmakes its paperback debut after selling over 3 million copies worldwide in hardcover.We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the Internet, in e-mail, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species.In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with. BACKCOVER: Praise for Lynne Truss and Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Eats, Shoots & Leavesmakes correct usage so cool that you have to admire Ms. Truss.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times Witty, smart, passionate.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review, Best Books Of 2004: Nonfiction Who knew grammar could be so much fun?” —Newsweek Witty and instructive. . . . Truss is an entertaining, well-read scold in a culture that could use more scolding.” —USA TodayTruss is William Safire crossed with John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty.” —Entertainment Weekly Lynne Truss has done the English-speaking world a huge service.” —The Christian Science Monitor This book changed my life in small, perfect ways like learning how to make better coffee or fold an omelet. It’s the perfect gift for anyone who cares about grammar and a gentle introduction for those who don’t care enough.” —The Boston Sunday Globe Lynne Truss makes [punctuation] a joy to contemplate.” —Elle If Lynne Truss were Roman Catholic I’d nominate her for sainthood.” —Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes Truss’s scholarship is impressive and never dry.” —Edmund Morris, The New York Times Book Review

Author Biography

LYNNE TRUSS is the author of the New York Times bestseller Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door, and The Lynne Truss Treasury: Columns and Three Comic Novels . Eats, Shoots & Leaves, for which she won Britain-'s Book of the Year Award, has sold over three million copies worldwide. Truss is a regular host on BBC Radio 4, a Times (London) columnist, and the author of numerous radio comedy dramas.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Frank McCourt	xi
Publisher's Note	xv
Preface	xvii
Introduction — The Seventh Sense?	1	(34)
The Tractable Apostrophe	35	(33)
That'll Do, Comma	68	(35)
Airs and Graces	103	(29)
Cutting a Dash	132	(36)
A Little Used Punctuation Mark	168	(9)
Merely Conventional Signs	177	(28)
Bibliography	205