"Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Puncuation" by Lynn Truss

Everybody has the right to be irrationally fanatical about one or two things. Lynn Truss has abused that privilege. Her fanaticism concerning proper punctuation is excessive. At least, that's how the beginning of the book feels. Had the book not been recommended to me by a friend, I no doubt would have stopped reading after the first chapter, wherein she voices her indignation over the deplorable state of world punctuation. As the book proceeded, I began to wonder if her feelings weren't sensationalized to grab readers, for she becomes much more reasonable. Once reasonibility sets in, the book offers a lot of good insights into the use of punctuation. We could all stand to use punctuation a little more, especially those marks other than the comma and period.

One interesting side note is that I found a few punctuation marks in her book, marks in direct contradiction of her stated rules. Now, that's to be expected in any book and would be excusable if it were not for her outspokenness on the subject. So, I checked the internet and found a long list of punctuation errors posted by some critics. I found it amusing.