The book I've been reading in the last couple days asks one question many times and in different ways: Why are some people so pedantic with the language (and enjoy that)? After all, once you have conveyed the meaning of what you want to say, isn't form just a useless burden? In the case of punctuation, shouldn't we just get rid of most (if not all) of it and only keep the words? Wouldn't it make things better?
Personally, I think this fixation (which I share too, up to a point) stems from the need of order and clarity some people have. Punctuation has been introduced to make written text clearer for readers and actors, and slowly it has acquired grammatical meaning too. Why should we get rid of something that has slowly developed to make communication less ambiguous, just because people cannot be bothered to learn it properly?
One of the things I've learned from the book I've mentioned in the previous post is that the different types of brackets have different names in British and American English. I've used these names interchangeably until now, so I'll start paying more attention.
Some time ago I read some excerpts from this little book, so when I found it in a second-hand book shop I decided it was time to buy it and read it end to end.
The book is for hardcore grammar nerds, so for everyone who dies a little bit inside while reading sentences like “The book and it's author” and “I like they're hair”. For each punctuation mark, there is some nice history and a practical “how to use” section. I have found some interesting use cases I didn't know about, and it's overall funny to read.
I'll expand on the practical notes to keep as a reference.