About this title: Who cares about the difference between "its" and "it's" or "whose" and "who's"? To the shock of everyone--including the author--apparently a lot of people do: Lynne Truss's lively look at the perils of punctuation took the UK by storm. A British radio personality, novelist, and self-described "stickler," Truss marshals all her wit and erudition to come down on the side of proper punctuation, and she doesn't care if people think she's an obsessive, persnickety, nitpicking nut. It's important! (After all, in 1351, a man named Roger Casement was hanged in England because of the presence of a ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham Books
Date Published: 01/2004
ISBN-13:9781592400874ISBN:1592400876
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 240 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham Books
Date Published: 01/2004
ISBN-13:9781592400874ISBN:1592400876
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 240 p. Previous Owner's Inscription. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781592400874ISBN:1592400876
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Nice hard cover, lightly read, light shelf wear to dust jacket, stk #2048s9. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 240 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781592400874ISBN:1592400876
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Unmarked text, front endpaper long stain on edge, no corner folds. Boards very good, dust jacket no edgewear, long, big stain on front long edge. Ship daily (carefully wrapped + free domestic dc). Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 240 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham
Date Published: 2004-04
ISBN-13:9781592400874ISBN:1592400876
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. No tears or chips to the DJ, interior clean and bright, binding tight, a wonderful copy throughout. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781592400874ISBN:1592400876
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. Return Policy Any defects, damages, or material differences with your item, must be reported to us within 7 days of receipt of the item or 30 days from date of shipment. The returned merchandise must be ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781592400874ISBN:1592400876
Description: Acceptable. A readable copy. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (the dust cover may be missing). Pages can include considerable notes-in pen or highlighter-but the notes cannot obscure the text. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781592400874ISBN:1592400876
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781592400874ISBN:1592400876
Description: Good. 114-X Ex-library. Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Dust Cover Missing. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"A great piece of humour here and, yet, with a serious aim, this little book has become a runaway bestseller overnight and rightly, too.
As author Lynne Truss has explained, there are many people who have little idea of the basics of punctuation. This does not surprise me in the slightest. As an examiner and a forced PGCE learner, I have found scant regard paid to full stops, commas and question marks- and it is getting worse!
However, by far the number one serial offender is the missing apostrophe. The story of the Panda who eats in a restaurant, then shoots the restaurant up and departs is an amusing story with an important message. The placing of punctuation in the wrong place can completely alter the message being conveyed… and at what a cost.
A REVOLUTION IN PUNCTUATION
The book is dedicated to the memory of the striking Bolshevik printers in St Petersburg who, in 1905, demanded to be paid the same rate for punctuation marks as for letters, and thereby directly precipitated the first Russian Revolution.
We have come a long way in nearly 100 years and the main casualty has been the written word. The ‘shorthand’ I have encountered in the last six years using the Internet is enough to convince me that this book should be compulsory reading in schools. Besides, it is a good read and very funny in places. To sell 50,000 copies in just over a week on release is a great achievement and illustrates the interest proper ways of communication continue to generate and I thank Lynne for that.
LEARNED OPINIONS
It’s true to say that the book makes a powerful case for the preservation of the system of what is interestingly described as ‘printing conventions’. However, this is not a book for pedants but for everyone, including members of the Bar who write lengthy Opinions (like me). It has never surprised me how cross the Judiciary become when they see sloppy legal paperwork. I expect it from solicitors but we must maintain a very high standard at the Bar, even with the infernal Internet and toxic text messages.
Well done, Ms Truss for reminding us of our legal roots… ‘sticklers unite’ she says, ‘you have nothing to lose but your sense of proportion – and arguably you didn’t have much of that to begin with’.
Do look at the end of the book for a fine bibliography – all the usual suspects are there including one B Bryson and ‘Troublesome Words’, and the excellent Philip Howard’s ‘The State of the Language: English observed.’ Lynne Truss has protected our endangered punctuation with panache and rightly raised the communication stakes at the right time.
"Lynne Truss' Eats, Shoots & Leaves is the very best book I've read about punctuation. Okay, it's the only book I've ever read about punctuation, but that doesn't diminish its accomplishment: for 204 pages, it managed to make punctuation not only educational, but also interesting. Much of this is due to Truss' amusing illustrations. For example, consider the difference a comma makes in the sentence, "Now I must go and get on, my lover." Go ahead, take the comma out and see what you get. Go ahead. I dare you. Pretty good, huh? Truss' writing style is lively and engaging and always solidly tongue-in-cheek. Though she encourages us to let our "inner stickler" run free and punctuate - correctly, of course - with wild abandon, you never get the feeling she's nagging. And in this day of incomprehensible text messages, I can't be the only one praying fervently that punctuation experiences a resurgence in popularity (along with spelling and grammar). Truss is here to lead the revival. On the flipside, this book has also made me hopelessly paranoid about my own poor punctuation skills (and, by extension, my abysmal grammar). I guess this book will be setting by my computer as a reference for years to come. And at least I'll be entertained as I wrangle my punctuation marks into their proper places...though I doubt it will cure my penchant for parentheses or my enthusiasm for exclamation points!"
"Lynne Truss, a self-proclaimed "stickler," provides a humorous romp through the world of punctuation. The book is part punctuation guide, part history of those funny little squiggles we call punctuation, and part rant about punctuation (mis)use in the real world. Much of the book is built around a seemingly endless collection of real-world punctuation errors that Truss has collected. Many of them are laugh-out-loud funny.
You can read Truss either as a comedienne doing a brilliant routine about punctuation, or as an outraged purist bemoaning the state of the world. My interpretation is more of the former. She may be a purist, but she also pokes fun at how much of a stickler she is being, and she acknowledges that many of the finer points of punctuation are judgement calls, as evinced by the stories she relates of conflicts between editors and famous authors over the placement (or not) of commas and semi-colons.
All in all, this was a fun read, and definitely the only punctuation guide I've ever had trouble putting down."
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