Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

2003 • 209 pages

Ratings52

Average rating3.8

15

This is a book with a pretty specific audience. It's nonfiction, about punctuation – not grammar, not usage generally, but punctuation. It's basically an ode to the stickler. It's pretty short, at a hair over 200 pages, which is for the best. If it went on much longer you wouldn't want to continue.

Each chapter is about a specific punctuation mark, or occasionally two (colon and semicolon), covering the rules about when and how to use each mark. But it's presented mostly in the form of funny essays, so it's not like reading a textbook. (You'd never try to read Strunk and White cover to cover... would you?) You'll also get little asides like the etymology of “O'” in Irish names.

Worth noting that the author is British and writes based on British English, with the occasional note about how it's done in American English, so you'll want to make sure you don't observe the wrong lessons for your side of the pond.