Cover 6

The Code Book

The Code Book

The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking

1996 • 494 pages

Ratings1

Average rating4

15

This was a very enjoyable read. Singh takes the reader along on a journey through cryptographic history. He explains the fundamentals of cryptography in a relative simple way, together with some great anekdotes. People literally lost their heads because of cracked codes.

The book was published in 1999, hence the narrative stops there. Simon Singh never update the book for the first 2 decades of the 21st century. Maybe something for its 25th anniversary?

For me this was 4,5 stars an updated version could reel in the last 0,5 star.
Highly recommended.