Book Review: Eats, Shoots & Leaves

                   Hahahahaha! Heeheeheeheehee! Hawhawhawhaw! Teeheeheeeheeehee! 

        Ah me! *wipes eyes* I can't remember the last time I laughed this hard over a book! (Probably my first reading through The Long Patrol by Brian Jacques.) Seriously, I'm almost crying right now. This is probably the single greatest thing on writing and punctuation that I have EVER read! (And that includes an article that likened misplacing an apostrophe to landing lights for a cesspool.)

       I'll admit that I am not a saint when it comes to grammar and punctuation. Heck, if a grammar nerd ever really wanted to sink their teeth into this blog I'm sure they'd end up with an ulcer and possibly an aneurysm. I know whenever I look back at some of my early, early posts I feel like I'm about to go into one.

       But I still staunchly maintain the opinion that earlier mentioned article submitted: grammar is important, but you don't have to be a Nazi about it. In the end the question comes down to did you write coherently, did you get your point across, and is everything legible enough that folk can read it without inducing a migraine? The occasional comma splice isn't the end of the world, especially in non-formal, just-for-fun writing. (Good thing too, because if it is I need to go find me some Winchesters...and maybe The Doctor too.)

      Like anything in life, when it comes to grammar you have to take the zero tolerance approach. You can't bend the norms of art until you've learned them and you can't break the rules of music until you know them inside and out. Likewise, one can't relax on their grammar until they know exactly what they are doing. Otherwise things will morph and bloat from the occasional misplaced semicolon to a great, big, bubbly cauldron of certain literary death. Or at least one would hope for certain death rather than be subjected to so horrible a fate as to be force-fed a diet of YouTube comments and some of the less-than-legible blogs that are floating around the Internet.

       This book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, takes a very light-hearted and humorous approach to grammar and punctuation. It lays out the basic rules of what you need to know, and it illustrates those rules with funny stories, jokes, and practical applications. By the end of it you will be in tears (of laughter) and will know quite a bit more about the Queen's English and the proper usage of it. You may also feel like weeping for the future of the English-speaking world.