My sister gave me this hysterically funny book by Lynne Truss for Christmas this year, and I have to be honest: I love it. I'll admit that I'm a bit of a grammar fanatic, so this is completely my element. The premise of the book is that, in a world where basic English and grammar skills are overlooked in favor of shorthand or text messaging, we are losing the ability to communicate our ideas articulately.

The back of the book jacket reads:

"A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

'Why?' asks 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.'

So, puncuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death."

Written with a wickedly sharp sense of humor, this book will edify grammar sticklers and clarify things for the more punctuation-challenged. It's relatively short; only about 200 pages, and can easily be read in an afternoon. A must read for everyone!