Black&White

Review: Eats, Shoots, & Leaves

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

Anyone who loves grammar and humour should read it.

My husband bought this book for me about 7 years ago. I read it and enjoyed every bit of it. I wouldn't call it a grammar book, although, it's about the importance of correct punctuation. It's light humour with a twist of pointing out the punctuational mistakes in everyday life which can totally change the intended meaning, and may lead to ridiculous disasters.

The book starts off with this famous joke.

"A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?", asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit.
The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoot, and leaves.
So, punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death."



There's a children's version of this book exists in form of a picture book by the same author.

Why This Blog Exists?

Goodreads is not good enough! I needed a space on the internet to express my personal feelings in a customised way about the books I buy, borrow, read, rate, review, flaunt, discuss, ditch etc. There couldn't be any better place than a blog. Any place better than this blog!

The Title?

The Title of my blog "Where My Books Go" is taken from a poem by the same title by William Butler Yeats. It goes like this:

All the words that I utter,
And all the words that I write,
Must spread out their wings untiring,
And never rest in their flight,
Till they come where your sad, sad heart is,
And sing to you in the night,
Beyond where the waters are moving,
Storm-darken'd or starry bright.