The Art of Computer Programming
From StoneHome
There is no way to explain the beauty which is Knuth; they are so pervasive and revered that they're known by many shorthand names, most commonly as Knuth or as TAoCP. These are simultaneously some of the most elegant and some of the most difficult books ever written, and are frequently believed to be the best computer science books written to date. They've been compared to poetry, and have such comments as Bill Gates' statement that anyone which can read them in a sitting should provide him their resumés. The cost is well worth it: no programmer is worth their salt until they've read Knuth. These are best gifted as a boxed set.
At nearly 700 pages the lightest of the three, Knuth 1 presents as groundwork material more difficult than almost any other computer science book I am aware of; even for the first volume, the only book in the neighborhood is CLRS. Knuth 1 gives a brief review of calculus, creates an interesting synthetic assembly language for idealized teaching, and then implements a variety of data structures and algorithms with a detailed explanation of the how, the why and the when of each. It is common for a self-taught programmer which has read Knuth to be more familiar with formal CS than a junior at a good university. If any book can change a programmer, regardless of their skill, TAoCP is it.
