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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Illustrated Ed.: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation Paperback – Illustrated, October 6, 2009

by Lynne Truss (Author), Pat Byrnes (Illustrator)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 4,044 ratings
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The stickler-tickling punctuation polemic is even more fun with the whimsical art of acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist Pat Byrnes

The runaway bestseller that has everyone minding their p?s and q?s (and their commas and semicolons), Eats, Shoots & Leaves has delighted audiences around the world, sold more than 1.6 million copies in North America and elevated Lynne Truss to superstickler status among those in the know. Now the book is beautifully packaged with more than fifty vivid, full-color illustrations throughout by renowned cartoonist Pat Byrnes. Each illustration brings to life a different punctuation pitfall in a wickedly playful style that matches Truss?s trademark wit. We hope you?ll agree that it?s a chocolate-and- peanut-butter combination (even better than the sum of its parts). Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Illustrated Edition is also accompanied by a colorful foreword by wordsmith extraordinaire Frank McCourt.
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  1. Print length
    176 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Gotham
  4. Publication date
    October 6, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 0.5 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    159240488X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1592404889
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women’s Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gotham; Illustrated, Reprint edition (October 6, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159240488X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1592404889
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.5 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 4,044 ratings

About the author

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Lynne Truss

Lynne Truss

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Lynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
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4,044 global ratings
Sticklers, the best is yet to come!
5 Stars
Sticklers, the best is yet to come!
A beautiful trip! I was looking for a different place but I found an English Library in Ecuador! I found this book in a previous version and fell in love with Lynne Truss! I had to have a brand new version for myself!
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Top reviews from the United States

Sahra Badou
5.0 out of 5 stars Punctuate this!
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2008
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This is a great fun book, and I really enjoyed reading it. It has been a while since I laughed so hard. Wait, should I have said, "This is a great, fun book"? When do we use Mrs. Comma?

The author writes, "Punctuation has been defined many ways. Some grammarians use the analogy of stitching: punctuation as the basting that holds the fabric of language in shape. Another writer tells us that punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop." (p. 7).

Punctuation can alter the sense of a string of words. Take the following example:

A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.

The use of punctuation is like fashion; it has its moments. One day it might be fashionable to use a semi-colon; another day it might not! Wait a second! Did I use my punctuation right? Should there have been a semi-colon after the word semi-colon? What a conundrum! And talking of semi-colons, did you know that colon in Greek means a limb (hence part of a strophe. A strophe is the first of two movements made by a chorus during the performance of a choral ode, but you all knew that, didn't you)? So a semi-colon is a half limb. But wait a minute, does apostrophe come from strophe or the other way round? Or maybe there is no relation whatsoever? Open your dictionaries!

Did you know that women use exclamation marks more than men! Wait, I really meant to put a question mark!

Did you know that most punctuation marks were invented by the early printers? Punctuation can render the written word into the way we talk. For example, poses between words, marking thoughts...

How about punctuation in text messages? Do any of us bother putting them? And how about in emails or while chatting on the internet, how do we use punctuation? Who invented the smileys and for what reason? Smileys are made of punctuation marks. For example, :-) is a smiley meaning a smiling face. Smileys are made of punctuation marks. Funny enough, I was looking for the plural of smiley (which I thought to be smilies) and could not find the word in either the Oxford or the Webster dictionary. I, however, was able to find it in the Collins and the American Heritage dictionary. I wonder why that is?! Hey, was that a correct usage of punctuation?!!!!!

Here's a nice fact: a few years ago, the average age of email users was 20. It is now 30, and climbing. More and more of us are using email to communicate with each other, and more and more of us are at a loss of how to use punctuation properly, if any. Just look at all the punctuation mistakes I have made in this short review (please don't count the grammatical errors!!!!!).

This is a book you will love reading, and you will find yourself with a smile on your face. This book does not intend to teach you. Rather, it informs you! Did you say women use exclamation marks more often than men?

The title of the book came about from a dictionary definition of panda. According to the author, the dictionary defined panda as a bear-like animal that eats, shoots and leaves. On the cover of the book, you actually see a panda on a ladder erasing the comma after eats. The sentence should have correctly read, `a bear-like animal that eats shoots and leaves.' Well, no one is perfect. (I keep wondering whether I am using punctuation correctly. What hath this book done to me? I mean to me!!!!!)

I highly recommend the audio version of this book as well. In fact, the book is based on the audio version. Throughout the audio you will hear interviews with punctuation professionals and secret societies with the sole goal of correcting punctuation mistakes. Really, no kidding! Well, maybe not that secret. One such society has as its goal to correct apostrophe mistakes. For example, its or it's? They actually write letters to editors and store owners (is that owner's?) making them aware of the correct usage of this infamous punctuation mark. Some store owners actually change their signposts to reflect the correct usage. But many don't. Amazing! Who said all secret societies are bad?

Here's a fact: The English language first picked up the apostrophe in the 16th century. The word in Greek means "turning away", and hence "omission" or "elusion". In classical texts, it was used to mark dropped letters, as in t'cius for "tertius" (p. 37).

O, before I forget, here's a useful insight: The American and British editions of this book use punctuation differently!

Wait, before I go, here's another thought: hopefully the author won't read my review and use me as an example of how horrible my punctuation is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17 people found this helpful
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BT Invictus
4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious Professional Development for English Teachers
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2013
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Once I built up some immunity against the author's relentless snobbery, I thoroughly enjoyed Eats, Shoots & Leaves. I've always been somewhat suspicious of the person who makes a habit of publicly shaming any individual unlucky enough to use poor grammar and punctuation in her presence - a habit she justifies with the rather transparent and eye-roll-inducing excuse, "I just love the English language too much to let the errors slide!" It seems there is always an ulterior motive at play: like Mom always said, "The bully who puts others down might just feel insecure about himself." If Mom's words are true, this author has one major inferiority complex.

But, although she is a bit of a curmudgeon (beware of the preface), she's quite funny; I found myself appreciating her sense of humor when it wasn't being used at the expense of the poor chap with bad punctuation. And it's true that we seem to have reached an all-time low when it comes to our knowledge of punctuation's proper usage. Who can disagree with her when she argues that it is in our best interest to refresh our memory for the sake of the clarity and style of our writing? There were definitely a few places where she clarified some usage rules for me.

In addition to being an engaging and fascinating read for anyone who is interested in English, this book is an amazing resource for writing teachers. It's full of examples of what happens when punctuation goes bad, examples that my students actually enjoyed. (I'm not kidding; they even laughed out loud at a few!) Here's just a small sampling of what she offers the writing instructor in the way of helpful illustrations:

After explaining some rules for the much-abused apostrophe, she writes:

I apologise if you know all this, but the point is many, many people do not. Why else would they open a large play area for children, hang up a sign saying "Giant Kid's Playground", and then wonder why everyone stays away from it? (Answer: everyone is scared of the Giant Kid.) - page 41

When discussing the comma, she writes:

...readers grow so accustomed to the dwindling incidence of commas in public places that when signs go up saying "No dogs please", only one person in a thousand bothers to point out that actually, as a statement, "no dogs please" is an indefensible generalisation, since many dogs do please, as a matter of fact; they rather make a point of it. - page 81

Another aspect of the book that I found really rewarding is her discussion of how punctuation influences style. It's true that much of her stylistic rules may seem rather arbitrary (for example, when she argues that dashes warmly welcome an aside while a pair parentheses treat the aside like more of an intruder). Even still, I found it interesting to think about how punctuation can subtly and not-so-subtly influence the tone and message of my writing. And pretty much of all of her arguments are persuasive, even if they are somewhat subjective.

So, in closing, if you have a high tolerance for elitism and even a remote interest in writing, I heartily recommend this book. English teachers, especially, should get their hands on this one.
8 people found this helpful
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Valiant S. Vetter
5.0 out of 5 stars A fun book! Educational too!
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2024
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This is a great book for the budding grammar … stickler.

If nothing else, this book will assure you that you’re not the only one who is irked by badly-written signs or letters and memos that missed the proofreading stage.
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Jason Calhoun
5.0 out of 5 stars A very fun and entertaining approach to grammar and punctuation!
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2024
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After being out of college for a while, and as an aspiring novelist currently querying for an agent, I definitely needed a brush-up on my grammar and punctuation. Author Lynne Truss provides a very entertaining and easy-to-follow approach to refreshing her readers on their grammar and punctuation.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book if you are a grammar nerd
Reviewed in Canada on May 30, 2024
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Loved this book. Covers all the grammatical issues that really annoy me. I’m now a paid-up member of the “apostrophe police”! Very amusing.
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Ok
Reviewed in Germany on January 14, 2024
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JohnJ
5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2023
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A wonderfully entertaining book. Who would have thought that a book on grammar, would not only be informative, but extremely witty. Well chosen examples are used to demonstrate the ambiguity of meaning that can be caused by incorrect, or no, punctuation.
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Jose Euardo Guevara
5.0 out of 5 stars libro
Reviewed in Mexico on August 2, 2018
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buen libro! me llego en buen estado, aunque es mas pequeño de lo que pense parece una edicion de bolsillo.
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Sulaiman
5.0 out of 5 stars The writing here is out and out funny, and still manages to maintain a serious tone ...
Reviewed in India on September 23, 2017
Verified Purchase
"Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college."
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

This is one quote I found in a book I recently read A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. Although it just goes to show the contrast between the American casual writing and the rules of punctuation in formal British English as elaborated in this book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a laugh out loud hilarious book in it's own right. The writing here is out and out funny, and still manages to maintain a serious tone to explain the workings of punctuations.

I got to know about this book through some website I don't remember. It was well worth it. I usually consider myself to be using correct punctuations as far as possible (to the extent of using them, as much as possible, during text chats), but the way the author described her state at the sight of incorrect use of punctuation is both hilarious and extreme. I have laughed out loud, for 3 straight minutes, in a crowded train while reading this. 3 minutes might not look much here, but in real life, watching someone laugh like crazy (alone) for a period of more than 30 seconds is scary. English being the first language of the reader is not a prerequisite to enjoy this book, all you need to be is attentive. It's a rather short and breezy read.

I'd recommend this book to people who can find humor in everyday grammatical mistakes. This book can also act as a self help book in improving use of punctuation. But not everyone can probably enjoy it.
15 people found this helpful
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