Eats, Shoots and Leaves - who has read this?

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I am unsure whether I think its great or whether find it intensly annoying. I hate it when books do that.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 14:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Did Tico Tico get it for Christmas?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Excerpts made the rounds in linguistics blogs for rampant errors, idiosyncracies, and weird pedantries, so I didn't pick it up -- but you could probably find those blog entries through google if you wanted to compare your thoughts.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I read about 15 pages of it. People really shouldn't get so worked up about it, it's a moderately entertaining (if anal, but then that is ILX's middle name) little book.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

"I Love Anal Everything"

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

"I Anal Love Everything", surely?

― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 17:00 (twenty-two years ago)

no, I Love Everything Anal.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Anal I Love Everything?

What's the difference, they cried...

― Dave B (daveb), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 17:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Lynne Truss's prose style is tremendously annoying. Even more annoying is the way she punctuates. Overfondness for semi-colons does not a good punctuator make.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh dear;

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

i bought it for my mum for christmas. but i don't think anyone's even touched it yet.

Perhaps a case of just great marketing then.

― jellybean (jellybean), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 20:00 (twenty-two years ago)

From the blurb it looks extremely conservative and stuffy but then I haven't read it so why should I care eh?

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 February 2004 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know why, but it seemed like the most N. book ever to me (not that i have read it)...

meg's borders in islington was selling around 100 copies of this per day in the run up to christmas...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 10:42 (twenty-two years ago)

**I am unsure whether I think its great or whether find it intensly annoying**

Evidently you *haven't* read it, if your spelling and grammar is anything to go by...

― Mog, Wednesday, 25 February 2004 13:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I clearly find it annoying then, as having read it I decided to ignore ALL its recomendations!

The book tells you to: use colons correctly, use apostrophe's correctly, use commas, correctly - and to go easy on the dashes.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

awright, I just ordered this from Amazon. Then I read the review in NYT yesterday and there's a reference to an "unquotably racist remark" on page 51. The suspense is killing me, along with the cigarettes and cheap booze

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Monday, 26 April 2004 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know why, but it seemed like the most N. book ever to me (not that i have read it)...

It sounds rubbish.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 26 April 2004 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

i bought it as a back-up present at xmas, didn't need it, left in the hidey place i keep presents at my parents and have not remembered to get it out or read any of the three times i have been back there since xmas

my punctuation is better than hers obv but i supposes she might explain a tricky thing an elegant way, like martin skidmore did with possessives etc (except i can't remember his explanation)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 26 April 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm thinking it'll do till the next godlike Bill Bryson opus

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Monday, 26 April 2004 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I bought it for my brother-in-law for Christmas in the hope that he'd then lend it to me. The plan failed since he has apparently not even picked it up yet. But then my mum bought it for me on Mother's Day (no, I don't get it either) and I must confess it is my new bible.

I strongly believe it'll become something of a benchmark of (admittedly personalised) pop-linguistic literature, up there with Kingsley Amis's excellent "The King's English" - I found myself using the phrase "Lynne-Trussian" in casual conversation on Saturday...which admittedly may say more about me than the book. I love punctuation and hate it when people (including myself) get it wrong. Chief offender: The Greengrocer's Apostrophe. Or is it The Greengrocers' Apostrophe?

Gah!

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 26 April 2004 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i wub the GG's ap w.its mad imperialistic ambitions: viz "apple's" !!

(cf "fo'c's'le"!! come on ppl we can do better!)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 26 April 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

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