[ahi]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It sounds very interesting - I'll be very interested in such a book, personally.

Please note, by the way, that the word is "Breaking"; the word "Braking", although it sounds the same, has a completely different meaning .

Thanks, I actually know this... or at least "know" it. I have a feeling that my extended exposure to shoddy spelling (curiously enough primarily since I entered the work force) is in part to blame.

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Sounds very interesting (although hopefully more breakable than the Voynich manuscript )

In a full collection, I think I would have to aim to have at least one manuscript as unbreakable as the Voynich MS--but I agree, most would have to be considerably more accessible.

Originally Posted by dadioflex

Sounds more like a game, than a book. How many readers would allow the level of interactivity required?

Most adventure games are a series of puzzles. Professor Layton for the DS is another recent puzzle based game. Actual cyphers... I don't know that it would interest me. Code-breaking is a pretty niche interest. And I used to be fascinated by secret codes at school. These days keeping my life running smoothly is sufficiently challenging.

How about an example of what you had in mind and we can see how much fun it would be.

I will try to put up something in the next day or two.

Suffice it to say that I am not thinking of heavily mathematical codes like public key cryptography even for the hardest puzzles. More like substitution cyphers of both plain and unorthodox sorts, secret codes that make use of certain unusual features of the foreign scripts used.

Definitely primarily an interactive endeavour... and I would say my hope is for something that is not just solely code-breaking but plentifully blends the experience of logical and creative reasoning with the aesthetic experience of (and bits and pieces of edutainment about) various writing systems.

Originally Posted by LazyScot

Simon Singh did a history of codebreaking his book The Code Book which included, I think, ten challenges to break (of increasing complexity).

I'd imagine it is difficult to pitch the codes at an appropriate level such that most readers could get it, but that it was at least something of a challenge..

Agreed. What ought to make it simpler is that, as hinted above, I would almost certainly stay away from stuff requiring advanced mathematics and make the exercise more like "creative secret diary deciphering".

Mainly security through obscurity sort of codes, with some of them perhaps even being steganographic in nature.

But I will try to post an example of the sort of thing I mean sooner rather than later so people could comment on something concrete.

Thanks for all the feedback thus far!

- Ahi