I am trying to figure out who this book is for. It’s written as if for people who already know grammar rules, innately or expressly. But if it’s for them, why simply tell the stories of the punctuation rules, knowing we already know them?
If it’s to teach people, well, then the tone is wrong.
So what I think would have made this work would be to provide lots and lots of funny examples of punctuation gone wrong, but it just wasn’t there. Or a more generous approach to teaching people. It’s both not pedantic enough and too pedantic, so it’s caught in between and doesn’t do much.
When I grew up one of my favorite books ever was called Anguished English where the writer filled it to the brim with funny examples. I learned so much from this book because I wanted to get the jokes. I wanted to absorb its cattiness. But this book, I don’t think could inspire that.
Instead, I think it’s for people who WANT to be grammar snobs, but can’t be or aren’t. Or people who don’t have outlets for it. I am a high school English teacher, and well, all English teachers are either Chaotic Good or Lawful Evil. I am chaotic good. I don’t WANT to savage students for their mistakes because I want them to learn. I might give this book to a student looking for an outlet, but I wouldn’t assign it to them. I think it would send the wrong kind of message I want to send to them.