[GasDad]

Recently on radio 4 they had a programme about the Masquerade Book where the contents of the book provided clues to the location of some buried treasure - did any of you devote the months to the book like many others ?

That was before my time - and pre-internet, but in 1999 The Code Book by Simon Singh was published. The book covered (in quite broad strokes) the development of cryptography from the early days of the roman empire through to todays public key encryption. A good and interesting read (though not as good as his book on Fermat) - however in the back of the book was a challenge with a £10,000 prize for whoever cracked the 10 codes it contained.

Of course, online groups quickly got set up to begin cracking the codes - there is a great explanation on Simon Singhs website here.

For me any many others, what started off as a couple of evenings reading turned into a few hours of playing with bits of paper cracking the first few, and turned into cooperative efforts with shared computer time trying to crack some of the later stages. I probably devoted well over 200 hours to the book and its problems. (and no I didn't get close to wining).

Any one else been similarly involved with a book?

[johntheexpat]

Not yet, but I'm working on it!
A friend of mine had read 'War and Wine' about the German occupation of Northern France (from the Loire up) during WW2. One of the premises of the book was that before the occupiers arrived, a lot of the Chateaux and larger houses hid many of their valuables in cellars and then bricked them up, so that they were safe from 'appropriation'. Then of course, the houses would be occupied, the owners 'relocated' etc etc. And of course, over a 5 year period, people die, never come back or simply forget.
So now, the Brits buy up these houses, 60 years after the event and never question the layout of cellars, walls etc etc.
So, once I have worked out a suitable system for sending webcams into small holes.........

And then of course we almost all have wells over here. And where better to hide stuff quickly. But wells contain water and quite often stones etc fall and cover the bottom. So how do I search the bottom of a 5-10M deep well (with typically a 2M depth of water) for treasure? I did ask my sister if I could borrow her youngest boy, so I could dangle him upside down from the bucket holder and lower him down to look but she refused.

I can see that book taking up a fair bit of time

[JayLaFunk]

Originally Posted by johntheexpat

I did ask my sister if I could borrow her youngest boy, so I could dangle him upside down from the bucket holder and lower him down to look but she refused.

Your sister is such a spoilsport

Jay

[Toddyhead]

I got quite obsessed with 'Pet Semetary' for a bit after hearing it on Radio 4's Book at Bedtime. I missed the very last episode so had to by the book to find out what happened and ended up reading it a couple of times in that week.

[BamBamMickey]

The Dark Tower series - Stephen King.
King's own little middle earth.

7 books in the series, they took over my life for a long time, re-reading etc.

Close to christmas now, perhaps i should start over.

[Smurfin]

Robin Hobbs books (all 6 Fitz/Fool books), G R R Martin's legendary series, sucked into Grisham's new one and can't put it down.....

[UnGreat]

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Came upon them by accident and was unsure at first but ended up reading eleven books in just over two weeks. I liked the fact that as well as a main story a central mystery is being revealed as the series progresses.

[Alan CD]

Patrick O'Brian's series of books about the adventures of Aubrey and Maturin in the Royal Navy in the early 1800s.

21 books in all - very good read!

[Goldfynche]

Terry Goodkinds "The sword of truth" series. 12 great volumes. One continuing story.
Ignore the farclcal TV adaptation "Legend of the seeker" All they have done is 'borrow' some of the characters. And then written a totally different story.