The Rule of Four and lunchboxes

Alright, before I offer my thoughts on another of my favourite books, I'm going to share a story. A sad, sad little story about me and my lunchbox.

So, I was at the public library the other day, doing some research when I got kind of hungry. So, I packed up my books and notes and lugged my stuffed bag over to a café around the corner. But when I got there, I realized that I'd forgotten my previously packed lunch box (which contained a crisp apple, a lovely sandwhich, and a gingerbread cookie I'd baked myself, I may add) at my desk at the library. More than a little annoyed, and very hungry, I trudged back to the library and to my desk. And, you guessed it, the lunch box wasn't there. I felt my heart sink a little, but then the girl who'd been sitting across from me looked up at me and asked me if everything was alright (I suppose hunger must have made me look rather deranged as I tore the little workspace apart in search of my lunch)

I replied by telling her that I'd lost my lunch. This statement made her blush a little. I raised my eyebrows, suspecting that she might have eaten it herself, but then, very sheepishly, she asked, "It wasn't the denim lunchbox, was it?"

I nodded.

"Well," she started, "There was this guy who came up to me looking for his lost lunch box, and I pointed yours out to him and he sorta... took it."

You can imagine that her words did not improve my mood. I mean who goes around tricking innocent girls into giving them other people's lunchboxes? Who does that?!?!?!

Don't worry though, I didn't take out my frustration on the girl. I politely thanked her for her time, left the library, and then let out a loud curse at the world in general. It wasn't until the nexr day that I found out that the person who'd taken it was actually a friend of mine who'd seen me forget it, and decided to play a trick on me. Again: I was not amused.

But more of that later (maybe...) for now I am going to focus on another of my favourite books: the Rule of Four. It was written by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thompson, and it, in essance, is about a group of four students about to graduate from Princeton, two of whom are are trying to decode and understand a cryptic book written in Florence during the 1400's: the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

Now there's a mouthful if I ever saw one, eh? Well, the content of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is just as mind boggling as the title. It contains a story that makes little to no sense, with ill chosen words placed in at random times, creating a jumble of prose which the worlds best scholars can't make heads or tails of. What they do know, is that there is a method behind the book's madness: words are hidden behind words, and history changing secrets are encrypted and buried in the impossible book.

So, the rest of the novel is about the four students and the effect the book has on their lives. The main protagonist, Tom Sullivan, is the son of a scholar who spent all his life obsessing over the book, and he loses himself in the book more than a few times too. His friend Paul Harris; a humble genius, is also studying the book, and hopes to have it cracked in time to submit his findings for his graduate thesis: a fast approaching date. Then there's Charlie, the laid back good guy, and Gil, the rich, handsome popular one.

Together, the four of them have to deal with obsession, campus life, growing apart and murder. And let me tell you, it makes for a very gripping conclusion. Not only are the characters real and likable enough that you care about what happens to them, but the thrill of decyphering the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and learning it's author's secret makes this book impossible not to love. And then there's all of the lore and history packed into the story as well...it's like the Da Vinvi Code, only if I had to chose I'd pick the The Rule of Four any day.

Now for some fun: I'm going to show you guys one of the simpler cyphers used in this book: the cypher aplhabet. First, you chose a code word, which can be any word that doesn't repeat letters. Then, you rewrite the alphabet, writing the letters of the code word first and then filling in the rest. For example, if I used the word phone:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

P H O N E A B C D F G I J K L M Q R S T U V W X W Z

Olli trdof, ec? Well, that's all for now, folks!