The popular British linguist David Crystal has followed up his 鈥淪tory of English in 100 Words鈥� and 鈥淪pell It Out,鈥� a history of English spelling and its rules (yes, there are rules), with this surprisingly fascinating new book, which includes a chapter for every punctuation mark you have ever heard of plus a fair bit of material on marks you maybe haven鈥檛. His overarching theme is that, historically, punctuation has been driven by the (sometimes conflicting) needs of two sets of readers: readers aloud, who need directions for performance, and silent readers, who need help in disentangling complex prose. You can read a full Monitor review of "Making a Point" here.
