Q: I have a favorite book. Why haven’t you read it and put it on your list?
A: For a book to be on this list, it has to have a least a smidgen of cryptography in it. I also only feature books that I own, so this list may not be as complete as the list on some web page populated by some Amazon bot – however, the content herein is of course much richer than any of the auto-bot collected book listings you see out there. If I’m missing your favorite book, give me a heads up -- or better yet, send me a copy!

Q: How can I contribute?
A: It’s easy for me to miss a new errata link, a download link (book content only), a new edition announcement, etc. All new input and error corrections greatly appreciated.

Q: I don’t like your choice of prerequisites. How were the prerequisites chosen?
A: Prerequisite books offer a simpler form of the subject material, or explain concepts that are simply assumed background knowledge in more advanced books. In some limited cases, it is possible that the prerequisite books are inadequate to prepare you for the next book. However, I can say with certainty that if you’re having trouble with the prerequisites, you’d better avoid the more advanced book.
Mathematical prerequisites are listed only when books reviewed here do not cover similar topics. Obviously, I don’t want to start having to recommend calculus books as well.
Prerequisites for books that I have not finished reading yet are generally accurate, but should be taken with a gain of salt.

Q: Can I send you a book to evaluate? Will you give it a thumbs up?
A: 1) Yes! 2) Maybe. If you’re good enough to send me a book, but I don’t like it, I’ll have the decency to simply not include it on the list at all.

Q: I don’t like the review you gave my book!
A: Wake up and smell the internet. Anyone and everyone has an opinion. Probably no one cares about my opinions on these books anyway. I’m sure many folks simply use this resource as a way to find books they may have otherwise missed.

Q: Don’t you read other books? What about books on hacking?
A: Cryptography books actually comprise only a small percentage of my reading. I started this listing back in 1998 when one could read a sizeable percentage of the crypto books available. Of course, the computer book market has exploded -- thank goodness I kept the scope narrowed to simply crypto. No one individual could keep up with all the publications in computer security and hold down a day job.

Q: How often do you update these pages?
A: Hopefully more often than I used to. I have recently converted all the content over to XML (that was a pain) so that I can spit out updates quickly. Updates happen when I have time and inclination.