Eats, Shoots and Leaves -- Lynne Truss

Lynne Truss, the punctuation nerd.

I've been looking forward to reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves for a long time. This weekend, it was finally my turn for the library copy. I loved it: it was funny, informative and it made me feel better about the day at Garden Street Market when I looked around to make sure no-one was looking, ran over to the outdoor whiteboard and erased an apostrophe from the word "litterbugs". (The sentence read, "Don't be litterbug's!") I couldn't help it. It had irked me for days, and finally, I just couldn't stand it anymore.

I stink at grammar. We never officially learned it in school—I think that we were supposed to just pick it up as we went along. I've always just written what seems right to me. (I did realize, during the reading of this book, that part of my problem might be that English & American grammar and punctuation rules are very different. Since most of my punctuation knowledge comes from reading, my love of British novels has probably mixed me up for life). I DO, however, know the difference between "it's" and "its", and that the word "groceries" does not require an apostrophe (the afternoon that I finished reading the book, I saw a sign that read, "Grocery's available here.")

I've always been semi-careful about complaining about crappy punctuation because: (a) My punctuation has never been that hot, so who am I to complain, and (b) I don't want people to think I'm any more of a complete snot than they already think I am. But Truss touches on this problem in the Preface:

...Some may say that the British are obsessed with class difference and that knowing your apostrophes is a way of belittling the uneducated. To which accusation, I say (mainly), "Pah!" How can it be a matter of class difference when ignorance is universal? ... Caring about matters of language is unfortunately generally associated with small-minded people, but that doesn't make it a small issue. The disappearance of punctuation (including word spacing, capital letters, and so on) indicates an enormous shift in our attitude to the written word, and nobody knows where it will end.

Any lover of language should read this book. For the information, sure, but also because it's a genuinely enjoyable read, full of bizarre factoids*. Before I read this book, for instance, I didn't know that Gertrude Stein thought that the comma was "servile". A word of warning, though: after reading this book, you'll see the mistakes everywhere. And they will really, really annoy you.

___________________________________

*Before anyone complains about my use of the word 'factoid': although Norman Mailer originally defined it as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper", it is now acceptable to use it as a diminutive of fact. According to Merriam-Webster, anyway.