Eats, Shoots and Leaves

I don't understand grammar. The workbooks which I am supposed to be working through are drudgery; they are filled with busy work and confusing rules. My writing sounds fine the way it is, thank you very much! Except, I have yet to master the language. Semi-colons are a mystery and my knowledge on where to insert an apostrophe is sketchy. And those grammar text-books are not working. Perhaps, just maybe, I can get by as a writer and college student just by using spell-check and what sounds right to my ear. If someone could make grammar alive and interesting, not just a pesky test to pass through on the way to good writing, I might learn it.
My wish was partially answered yesterday when I picked up and read Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. I never knew punctuation was so much fun. For example, the author writes, "I apologize if you know all this [proper punctuation], but the point is many, many people do not. Why else would they open a large play area for children, hang up a sign which says 'Giant Kid's Playground', and then wonder why everyone stays away from it? (Answer: everyone is scared of the Giant Kid)."
Yes, it's British humor. She not only approaches grammar with humor, but with a bit of history and Shakespeare; yes, Shakespeare. Lynne Truss examines several moments of Shakespeare’s plays as examples; scenes which I know and love. I was delighted. I never knew the Bard referred to grammar and punctuation in his plays.
Learning about the history and evolution of punctuation gave me an appreciation for it. Because I learned so much more than the usual high-school grammar course, the book easily solidified the basic concepts in my head. Grammar may still be a struggle—hey, if you see mistakes in this post, my defense is I am still learning—but thanks to books like Eats, Shoots and Leaves, grammar is made worthy of learning.