A tangent: talk of stylebooks always reminds me of this hilarious CHE article, which I'll excerpt here (but it's worth finding and reading the whole thing!):

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Bauman, M. Garret. "The Devilments of Style." Chronicle of Higher Education; 11/9/2001, Vol. 48 Issue 11, pB5, 1p.

RECENTLY I received a complimentary copy of a textbook devoted to teaching the research paper. Oh, there was a perfunctory section on how to compose the paper, but most of the 420 pages focused on differences among citation formats: MLA (Modern Language Association), APA (American Psychological Association), CM (Chicago Manual of Style), and CBE (Council of Biology Editors). As the author of a textbook on writing, I have to keep up with my field, so I thumbed through to see if there was anything worth stealing for my next edition.

I regret (as my readers must regret) that I can offer so few samples of the hundreds of variations. The text patiently explained that an author's first name should be spelled out (MLA and CM), reduced to initials with a period after each initial (APA), or reduced to initials with no period or space after each one (CBE). It told which format requires "and," which requires "&," and which avoids conjunctions; it explained when to use "pp" or "p" with page numbers and the three ways to indicate discontinuous pagination. The guidelines are more complex than they first appear. For instance, one group never uses "p," while others use it here but not there, and one uses it with no period, "unless it is the last item in an entry." This went on for hundreds of pages, and the text had "easy access" tabs so students could get lost faster.

After 15 minutes, the book fell from my hands and I sat back -- appalled. Was it possible that I had published a textbook with only 16 pages on citation formats? The shame! I had simplified Rubik's Cube to a sugar cube and was spending hours in class teaching students how to evaluate sources and to reason, when I could have filled the time with date-placement and capitalization issues. I envision a new future for myself now. . . .

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Beth

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