coding theory good reads.

Coding Theory
Although most authors recommend a background in Number Theory, I recommend some background in Coding Theory:

Shift Register Sequences, by Golomb (Aegean Park Press, 1982),
A Commonsense Approach to the Theory of Error Correcting Codes, by Arazi (MIT Press, 1988),
Coding and Information Theory, by Hamming (Prentice-Hall, 1980),
Error-Correcting Codes, by Peterson and Weldon (MIT Press, 1972),
Error-Correction Coding for Digital Communications, by Clark and Cain (Plenum Press, 1981),
Theory and Practice of Error Control Codes, by Blahut (Addison-Wesley, 1983),
Error Control Coding, by Lin and Costello (Prentice-Hall, 1983), and
The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms, by Aho, Hopcroft and Ullman (Addison-Wesley, 1974).