Eats, Shoots & Leaves

[Khamûl]

Eats, Shoots & Leaves (The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation)

Has anyone read this hilarious book by Lynne Truss? I bought it today and am in the process of reading it now.

Either this will ring a bell for you, or it won't. A printed banner has appeared on the concourse of a petrol station near to where I live. "Come inside," it says, "for CD's, VIDEO's, DVD's, and BOOK's."

If this satanic sprinkling of redundant apostrophes causes no little gasp of horror or quickening of the pulse, you should probably put down this book at once. By all means congratulate yourself that you are not a pedant or even a stickler; that you are happily equipped to live in a world of plummeting punctuation standards; but just don't bother to go any further. For any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word "Book's" with an apostrophe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the process of bereavement, though greatly accelerated. First there is shock. Within seconds, shock gives way to disbelief, disbelief to pain, and pain to anger. Finally (and this is where the analogy breaks down), anger gives way to a righteous urge to perpetrate an act of criminal damage with the aid of a permanent marker.

This was on the first page. I read it and knew that this was the book for me, since I often remark on the misuse of "it's" and "its" and other grammar/punctuation. If it applies to you too, I recommend picking it up. I've laughed out loud reading it.