I was taught by one of the authors of this book (Vanstone) and greatly appreciated the book after the course. This book is a very solid introduction to ECCs which starts from very basic block codes (with simple generators) and develops/introduces the required abstract algebric theory which eventually lead to modern Solomon-Reed codes.

The merit of this book lies in the fact that it does what the title says and provides an introduction, which build the fundamentals for advanced research in this area. I read the book with minimal knowledge of error correcting and now can fully appreciate the capabilities of modern electronic devices and the ability error correcting provides.

Only problem as noted in another review, the darned price!
Read more at http://ebookee.org/An-Introduction-to-Error-Correcting-Codes-with-Applications_308610.html#79XuJsJrtYcMR4Oh.99