• Eats, Shoots & Leaves

  • The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
  • By: Lynne Truss
  • Narrated by: Lynne Truss
  • Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (269 ratings)

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Eats, Shoots & Leaves  By  cover art

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

By: Lynne Truss
Narrated by: Lynne Truss
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Publisher's summary

In 2002, Lynne Truss presented Cutting a Dash, a well-received BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation, which led to the writing of Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The book became a runaway success in the UK, hitting number one on the best seller lists and prompting extraordinary headlines such as "Grammar Book Tops Bestseller List" (BBC News). With more than 500,000 copies of her book in print in her native England, Lynne Truss is ready to rally the troops on this side of the pond with her rousing cry, "Sticklers unite!"

Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. If there are only pedants left who care, then so be it.

This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From George Orwell shunning the semicolon, to New Yorker editor Harold Ross' epic arguments with James Thurber over commas, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.

©2003 Lynne Truss (P)2004 BBC Audiobooks, Ltd.

Critic reviews

"You don’t need to be a grammar nerd to enjoy this one.... Who knew grammar could be so much fun?" (Newsweek)

"Witty and instructive.... Truss is an entertaining, well-read scold in a culture that could use more scolding." (USA Today)

"Truss is William Safire crossed with John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty." (Entertainment Weekly

What listeners say about Eats, Shoots & Leaves

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    1 out of 5 stars

Not Too Much There

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
First, it's not the original book, which I assumed it was. Rather is a number of disjointed excerpts, interviews, and sound bites, with lackluster attempts at comedy. I took away nothing I did not know.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
It is poor value for the cost. If the price were $3.95, I probably would not have returned it.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Cute, but because it is a collection of radio broadcasts, it becomes very formulaic and predictable. Enjoyable for a quick listen, but seemed long, although it was only an hour in length.

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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NOT THE BOOK

This was not the book and I should have read the reviews before I bought it. My mistake! This is a bunch of exerts from a TV program. Very disappointed. Unfortunately, I would not recommend this "book."

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The Deadly Consequences of Punctuation.

This isn't the book! I say that because it is obvious from the title of this program if one reads the whole thing, but it seems many didn't bother and then were disappointed with the product for being what it says it is.
This is the radio broadcast that inspired the book. It's a very clever program that helps a person think about punctuation and its uses. It shows, for instance, how a misplaced coma can have deadly consequences. "Let's eat grandpa!" means something entirely different than "Lets eat, grandpa!". Lynne Truss uses such examples to show the usefulness of punctuation. And that is the usefulness of this program it arouses interest in punctuation and alerts the listener to the need for punctuation.
Of course, there is talk of how punctuation is used properly and different mistakes made with punctuation and why. The history of punctuation and the uses of different marks was also interesting. However, the show is by no means exhaustive in its treatment of punctuation. Most of the individual segments are maybe 10 minutes long. Also, there are no chapter breaks in this program. That seems like it would have been an easy thing to do. The whole program is one hour and runs through the entire broadcast in one fell swoop. No re-listening to just that segment on the comma.

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4 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not good audio book material

Any additional comments?

I was hoping for so much more; disappointing product. This content may have been better as the BBC show or as written material. There were parts such as the walks along London streets that did not work well in this format. There are better books on this subject matter.

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3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Not the book

False advertising. I thought I was getting the book. It is NOT clear by the cover that this isn’t the book. The cover page is nearly identical to the book, even using the same art.

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    1 out of 5 stars

This is not the audiobook you are looking for.

This is about an hour and a half long "radio program" by the author of the book and aired on what I assume was BBC radio (being the author talks of London, the UK literacy standards, and in general references to the UK). This is not a reading of the book as I had hoped and was sorely disappointed.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Educational and witty

The information made me rethink and look around me more distinctly.
My grade school teachers strictly fought tirelessly against run on sentences. Yet, it was not addressed here.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

Enjoyable. Disappointed it is not the book but happily pleased. Will listen to it again.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

I wanted to listen to the best-selling book referenced several times. This is a radio boradcast that inspired the book.

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