Couldn't resist. Young woman next to me at Miss Alabama pageant was reading it, saying "It's wonderful!"

Laughing out loud at lunch over this and that began a conversation. Turns out the lady at the next table was an English teacher and decided to buy it after reading the back cover story.
Delighted that my hero James Thurber and Harold Ross make an unexpected appearance. Dry British wit and some truly memorable examples!
As someone who has read thousands upon thousands of undergraduate and graduate student papers, I concur most heartily with her worry over the apostrophe. There had to be at least three years' worth of students making the same error with "do'nt" and "would'nt" and it drove me up a wall! I've been known to go on the blackboard and write: "It's = It is"
"Its= possessive." They're, their, and there and their meanings. One she doesn't talk about, but, since I am a CJ teacher it happens too often "the Scott Peterson trail" (is that like the Trail of Tears?)
Onto fsr44 and thence?

Oh, and a belated thank you to Sister Mary Patricia Combies who taught me all of this and more :)
Handed off to fsr44 live and in person while watching fireworks!

Funny and sharp...this book proves that grammar and punctuation do not need to be dry, dull topics. It felt like a support group for people like me who need to fight the compulsion to correct signs and ads.
Will pass on to Meg.

Gave to Meg.

Received back from Meg.

Netstation sent a copy of this book to go in a ring, and it has eaten, shot and left. This ring at the moment is stalled, because of mail problems. Anyhow, fsr44 has won wings by volunteering this copy to continue the ring. If the other one turns up, then the ring will be split. People who journaled on the missing edition have been invited to check in here so that they can follow this delightful book.

As it stands, this is the current order:
cmbohn, KF-in-Georgia, prplpec, kitten22, Joanthro, (XiaoHong), (djfil)
florafloraflora
Rampallion
goygirrl<-- Here Nov 9
silverstarry
kelwood
spacedog
Ilios
fairfaxgirl
Nepenthe 40
Muinteoir
cyber-librarian
Antof9- my favorite grammer dork
nekki2976
raralovestoread
Contact fsr44 to see if the book should go back to her or should be released.

People in parentheses have gotten their own copies after waiting patiently. Rather than tie up the ring, they have moved off list, but have been given the option to journal on this copy if they wish. The ring has already been divided once, and the other half is on jamesmum's shelf.

If you want to read previous journal entries, click here

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending to florafloraflora to revive a dead bookray.

This has just arrived from fsr44, to replace a bookring that somehow went missing after it was sent to me. I'm still trying to figure out what happened. Thank you so much, fsr44! You're a star.

I like Frank McCourt's blurb on the back of this book: "If Lynne Truss were Roman Catholic I'd nominate her for sainthood. As it is, thousands of English teachers from Maine to Maui will be calling down blessings on her merry, learned head." Awwwww...

I'll read this fast and send it right along.

It's nice to know that the proper name for people like me is "stickler". [<--Note British use of period outside quotation marks!] It sounds so much nicer than "pedantic twit". This is a delightful little book, and the bibliography gives me a lot to explore. One of my favorite parts has to do with my pet peeve, the use of quotation marks (or as Lynne Truss describes them, "weaselly inverted commas") for no good reason, which bugs me even more than misplaced apostrophes. Here it is:

"The interesting thing is how this practice relates to the advertising of 'PIZZAS' in quite large supermarket chains. To those of us accustomed to newspaper headlines, 'PIZZAS' in inverted commas suggests these might be pizzas, but nobody's promising anything, and if they turn out to be cardboard with a bit of cheese on top, you can't say you weren't warned."

All I can think is, at least it's not "PIZZA'S"!

I've emailed Rampallion and will send the book out as soon as I hear back with an address. Thanks again to fsr44, truthteller, and bookczuk.

UPDATE September 27: Mailed today.

I was part of the bunch of readers of the copy that went astray. I'm jumping in here (thanks for the BCID, bookczuk) so I can keep up with the journal entries for one of my favorite books.

Meanwhile, this copy's still traveling from florafloraflora...

Arrived today! Thank you very much!

Hilarious! I laughed out loud several times. I love the notion of commas as sheepdogs, rounding up all the different phrases and list items and keeping them together or apart as necessary. I am extremely grateful to Aldus Manutius, both Elder and Younger, for inventing the semicolon and pioneering the use of italic type. And while I don't think that the use of a backwards question mark for rhetorical questions will ever catch on, it is a spiffy idea.
Thanks, fsr44, for un-stalling this ring. And thanks also to florafloraflora for sending the book and a lovely postcard.
I have sent a PM to goygirrl for her address; I hope to have this book in the mail this week.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to goygirrl via mediamail. Should arrive in about a week. USPS Delivery Confirmation # 0304 1070 0001 5976 8836 . Check www.usps.com for updates.

Got this in the mail last week. It's next on the list. Thanks!

We interrupt this bookring for some good news: this book's twin has been found. The lovely and talented FSR has agreed to keep her book ringing, so we will now split the list again to make the reading even faster. This copy will go on to:

silverstarry - CA
kelwood - OH
Muinteoir - TX
cyber-librarian - IL
Antof9 - CO (has already read, but will journal anyway--no need to send the book)

pjmom8025 - MN

Spacedog, Ilios, fairfaxgirl, Nepenthe40, nekki2976, and raralovestoread will read the other copy.

Happy reading!

Note from a very grateful bookczuk:

fsr44 has saif that she doesn't need the book back and that the last person should feel free to let it find its way in the world.

Thank you!!!

This lovely book just showed up in the mail today, and I'm thrilled. I've been wanting to read this for ages. I've always been better at reading and writing than anything else. My college major was Journalism, and now I work in communications for a large corporation. I'm sure the average corporate accountants and engineers think I'm weird because I have so many writing and grammar books. Thanks to all of you who followed this ring and kept it moving.

What a wonderful book; I'm so glad I had a chance to read this. Filled with just the right amount of wit and wisdom, it's perfect for so many of us grammar and writer types. In fact, I received an e-mail today from someone I would have expected more from. She misspelled a nearby city name and it made me cringe as I thought of the three people from that city reading the same e-mail. But then, e-mails often make me cringe, as they do for Ms. Truss. Will be shipping this out on Monday.

Sent via media mail to Muinteoir in Texas. Happy reading!

The Post Office Demons seem to have devoured this book. :( (Or else it is sitting in a pile to be journaled by the next recipient...)

Nov 23 2005 Update: RING STALLED
Ring officially declared stalled as the blasted book has gone MIA. Next on the list was Muinteoir - TX (original mailed 03 Jan 2005 to her but not received as far as I can tell) then cyber-librarian in IL.