Snails & Monkey Tails: A Visual Guide to Punctuation & Symbols

"There are countless books that can teach you the alphabet, but almost none that focus on the tiny designs that run interference among the letterforms: those easily overlooked punctuation and typographic symbols. These symbols, as Michael Arndt proves in this beautiful and endlessly fascinating book, are absolutely indispensable to communication: punctuation turns words into sentences and language into meaning... From commas to semicolons, from slashes to asterisks, from guillemets to octothorpes (named, perhaps, after athlete Jim Thorpe), you’ll never look at punctuation the same way again."—Michael Bierut, partner, Pentagram In this show-stopping guide with more than 75 uniquely designed two-color spreads—a rollicking linguistic ride for fans of Eats, Shoots & Leaves and Just My Type—award-winning graphic designer Michael Arndt explores the typographic origins, names, and shapes of both common punctuation marks and symbols, as well as the proper and diverse usage of each. From th