"Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss

Yesterday, I finished reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves by the British Lynne Truss. It's brilliant! Don't let the fact that it's a book about punctuation put you off; it's funny and actually rather helpful.

People seem to take punctuation for granted nowadays, and very few seem to realize how important it actually is. Take this sentence for example (taken from the book):

"Woman, without her man, is nothing."

This sentence implies that a woman needs a man to make her a person and satisfy her life. Now watch what happens with a simple shift of the comma:

"Woman: without her, man is nothing."

Now the meaning has changed to imply that men need women in order to function properly whereas women do not necessarily need men. If a misplaced comma can completely invert the meaning of one unimportant sentence, imagine what would happen if a comma were misplaced in a strategic paragraph in an important political dossier given to the United Nations.

With the growth of technology and text-messaging, punctuation is also disappearing. The semicolon and colon have become practically extinct, putting ever more pressure on poor, thankless comma.

Whether you're truly looking to improve your grammar or you just want something light and slightly humorous to read, I highly recommend this book. Kudos to you, Lynne Truss!