Danny ChaiI pretty much hated Eats, Shoots and Leaves and only finished reading it because my stubbornness for finishing books is just a step below Henry’s (who lent me the book). I knew it was about punctuation, but I figured that a book that popular must in some way transcend the subject, like how Moneyball is about more than just baseball but competing systems of thought, and how Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is about way more than Kung-Fu. But it doesn’t. It’s just about punctuation. A subject I’m interested in about as much as quilting.
Here are my particular problems with the book. First of all, when it comes to punctuation (and grammar, for that matter), I’m an ultra-pragmatist. To me, it only matters if it affects comprehension. And actually, many times it does. But not always, and ultimately, comprehension and communication are the only things that matter. It should be a tool, not a rule, especially since language is so malleable and the rules change all the time.
The author acknowledges this, makes pretty much the same point herself. Then she violates it by making a bunch of normative claims that really have no basis other than personal preference. I’m against that.
My other problem with the book is that it’s based on English rules of punctuation, which differ from the American English rules enough that I came away from the book more confused about what’s proper and what’s not. So the book has actually hurt my punctuation skills. Good job!