Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: A must-have book for understanding Cryptography.
Comment: This book has really shed a lot of light on cryptography for me. I honestly can't put it down--I wish I had paid more attention in my statistics classes so I could be able to apply some of the stuff the author talks about better. I am about half way through the book, and I haven't gotten to the point where it's more of a chore than a pleasure to read it (something I can't about my other technical books).
Glancing through the C source code at the end of the book started me thinking on the code implementation in my efforts - although I used Java althrough my life. I am not much comfortable with the C code because I was hoping for more goodie examples. If you want some practical guidance..you may little bit uncomforatble as well. At the end of the day if you are serious about Cryptography then you really need to get a copy of this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Prepare to drink from the firehose
Comment: This book is really incredible. When it was first published in the mid-90's, there was almost no material available on the subject of cryptography. Now, ten years later, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of books riding on Schneier's coattails - but almost none have anything new or useful to say. Impeccably researched (with 1,653 references!) and unarguably complete, Schneier's expertise in theoretical mathematics, experience as a practitioner, and razor-sharp lucidity combine to make this the only book you'll ever need on the subject of cryptography.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Applied Crypto was just what I needed..
Comment: AP was exactly what I needed for the practical background necessary to implement the cryptosystems used in a number of products we've built.
I found the book to be excellent, thorough, and well written - highly recommended (and hardly "shelf ware" as some of the other venom-filled reviewers have claimed).
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Runaway text
Comment: I've never seen so many pages devoted to pure text. Man oh man, is there a lot of talk--yak yak yak. All technical issues are detoured, inviting the reader to check out the references listed at the end of the book (all I have to buy is 1,643 references--gee, thanks). I find it disheartening that a 700 page book on cryptography doesn't give out a lick of information on the actual subject. If you like a bunch of talk and some hand waving explanations, then this book is definitely for you. Engineers and computer programmers may not be satisfied.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Bible of the Crypto-world
Comment: For anyone working or studying the crypto-world (IT Security, Cryptographer, Cryptologists, PKI/PGP/SecureID Technologists, etc.) this is a must read.
For the fascinating world of Cryptography (the practical application of Cryptology) this is an essential textbook that any graduate course of digital security and cryptology should include. It is inteded as a reference book as well as a practical book to have handy for the working professional.
It's no wonder the NSA had asked the author not to publish this book. It leaves the Crypto-world naked to the average viewer/reader!
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