Cracking Codes and Cryptograms for Dummies

Oh boy! Where was this book when I was a lad? I would have eaten it up entirely. I was always big on codes, and did my share of counting letters, learning weird alphabets and writing my secret thoughts in my diary so that only I could read them. I don't have any secrets anymore, certainly not from members of my family, but I've maintained the interest. Two of the most treasured books on my bookshelf are Applied Cryptography and Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945. This book has it all and cryptic crosswords. There's a short historical and introductory section giving the background to codes and cryptograms, outlining ways of making and breaking them, and then we get into the meat of the action. There are coded puzzles to be solved. Some easy, some more challenging. Hints are provided for those having difficulty, and if you are really, totally stuck, the solutions are right at the end. But it's not just a list of crypto puzzles. There's three real life and little-known conspiracy stories for the reader to work out, using the puzzles that make up the rest of the book. I'd like to say that there's hours of fun in this book, but there's not. Days and weeks of fun for a grown-up kid. Highly recommended for the clever kids. Of all ages.

I thought I was familiar with cryptograms--you know, those letter-substitution puzzles found in the paper. And I wondered how one could produce an entire book dedicated to those puzzles. Well, turns out those are just the tip of the cryptogram iceberg. This book has some of those, but also nine more types of cryptograms and ciphers for your puzzling pleasure. The book starts with a very brief history of cryptograms, ciphers, and codes, and their used throughout history. I do wish there had been a bit more on codebreaking. But this book is really about solving these types of puzzles, and it has plenty of them. They make up the bulk of the book. From substitution cryptograms to Masonic ciphers to keyboard codes and beyond--this book will keep even the fastest solver busy for months (and those of us who are a bit slower--probably years!). And if you get stuck, there's a section that offers clues to the puzzles. There's also a twist to all the puzzles: they're all part of a broader story solved by inserting the completed cryptos into the text. This not only gives an incentive to solve all the puzzles, but also adds an element of difficulty: rather than each puzzle being a famous quotation (like the newspaper version), it's instead a seemingly random sentence or phrase. If this really whets your appetite for the world of cryptography, the authors give a few references for further study. If you'd like to read a good fiction book on the subject, I highly recommend Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson.

As a person interested in word puzzles but with no historical knowledge of ciphers, I found this book to be very well-balanced. The book introduces several types of cryptograms and ciphers, many of which I was unfamiliar with, and I didn't feel like I needed previous experience to dive right in and start cracking the codes. A feature I found interesting was the section on conspiracy theories, tying all the puzzles together and using the solutions from the other puzzles to form the complete story. Having three different difficulty levels for each type of cipher was really helpful in developing my strategies for solving them. The beginning of the book gives you common tips and tricks, and the back of the book has a section that includes a hint for every puzzle. I love that, because if you really get stuck it gives you one extra chance before you look up the solution.

Having read "Cracking Codes and Cryptograms for Dummies" I believe that the book has a great deal of historic information. It also gives a lot of general information on how ciphers are made and used from when to now. The book also has a large amount of practice ciphers to help with understanding. I found the book to be extremely enlightening and would recommend it for anyone interested in cryptology.

This is a fantastic book. I bought it so I could write messages to my students in code and found that it is sooo much more. It is very easy to read and really hooks you in right from the beginning. There is a lot more to this book than first glance. It explained a lot about how to do codes & cryptograms and write them as well for me (at a beginners level), but it was also really interesting for my husband who has studied formal logic & loves these sorts of brain twisters. This one is worth buying - I'm thinking of buying another one so we aren't fighting all the time over who gets to read it.