Book club debate got heated over a single comma

Last Tuesday at our monthly meetup at the Last Page Cafe in Portland, we spent a full hour arguing about whether a comma in chapter 4 of 'The Midnight Library' changes the whole meaning of a scene. I thought it was just a typo, but Linda from accounting insisted the author put it there on purpose to show the main character's hesitation. Things got loud enough that the barista asked us to keep it down. I ended up pulling out my phone and zooming in on the ebook to prove it was a standard serial comma. Nobody changed their mind though, and we finally voted 6-4 that it was intentional. Has anyone else's book club nearly come to blows over punctuation like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_brian20d ago

Yeah we had a similar fight over a semicolon in my book club once, it got ugly.

christopher_hunt20d ago

Aw man, I love a good semicolon debate though, that's where all the real arguments live.