I first heard of this book in my Writer’s Craft class when Mr. Sinko told us the incredibly witty “Panda joke” that holds the very meaning of the title. The “Panda Joke” - in case you haven’t heard it - is transcribed below:

_ A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. “Why?” askes the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. “I’m a panda,” he says at the door. “Look it up.” The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation. “Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”_

And there you have it. The witty little short that explains both the title and purpose of the book. Lynne Truss has crafted a clever book that exposes, quite plainly, the complete failure to grasp the English language that is often found in English speaking countries. It is extremely entertaining to read. My enjoyment stems from noticing how pathetic we are at writing our own language, and not due to some sort of superiority complex (as my grammar is as atrocious as the next man).

However, I do have some pride in knowing that the plural of CD does not include an apostrophe. Then again, I feel some shame in not realizing that the title to the film Two Weeks Notice was a grammatical inaccuracy.

Currently, I’m hesitant to recommend the book due to the fact that I have only completed one-third. I imagine that my recommendation can only be produced after I’ve read and digested the chapter on hyphens. It will be interesting to have my frivolous usage of them cut down. EDIT: After typing and publishing this post, I noticed that Wordpress has the inability to properly carry over indentations. I’m constantly perplexed by Wordpress’s frustrating interface. Also, when a word that ends in an “s” is made possessive, do you add simply an apostrophe or an apostrophe “s”.