Eats, Shoots & Leaves

24 June 2010

Are you one of those writers that are forever struggling with their punctuation? Or are you a real stickler, and blessed - or should that be cursed - with the seventh sense?

It doesn't matter which of the two you are - or even if you find yourself balancing somewhere in between those two extremes - if you are serious about writing, Lynne Truss's book Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a must-have for your personal library.

Presenting itself as The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, this is the funniest book about punctuation I ever laid my greedy little hands on. It doesn't spell out the rules, but shows you with numerous examples that punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.

My 11-year old, who used to be a reluctant reader until quite recently, voluntarily picked it up the other day, and surprised me by reading page after page of this little treasure, and asking me questions about the things she didn't understand. And after maybe half an hour of absorbing new knowledge, she surprised me even more by saying, "Mum, you know, it's really quite cosy, sitting on the couch together, reading."

Need I say more?