Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss

Once in a while the dis-oriented author sees a book and buys it purely on impulse. Thus, when I saw, Lynn Truss' Eats, Shoos & Leaves; I read the cover; saw that it was an NY Times bestseller; and I knew I had to buy it Truss' book is all about punctuation — not a subject I normally read. When I picked up the book I read this  on the back cover:

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?", asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China, Eats, shoots and leaves."

This book is hilarious. I could hardly put it down. Be careful, if you read it; you might just learn something.

Truss, starts out with a discussion of the apostrophe. Truss points out that use of the apostrophe is on the decline in English. Not only is it on the decline; it seems that nobody knows how to use an apostrophe correctly. Truss explains when to use: its or it's.

Truss' writing is humorous and erudite. Not being as very well read, some of her references to  famous writers, like Joyce and Woolf, were lost on me.  Truss is English so some of the vocabulary, usage and even punctuation is British, not American. The book does a pretty good job of pointing out the differences.

In the end, Truss makes a plea for written language. In this age of e-mail, text-messaging and emoticons, it is a tough row to hoe.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I an not a punctuation (or spelling) expert. Truss has an easy-going and humorous style. This is an fun book to read. I enjoyed the book and I learned a lot.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves 5 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

Purchase Eats, Shoots & Leaves from Amazon.com.