I am an academic, so slightly offtopic from the original post, but still may be relevant. I think TAOCP is probably not worth reading cover to cover for even academics let alone practical programmers, but definitely having it by your side for reference.<p>The important thing that distinguishes the book is this: the attention to detail. Knuth is one who famously shuns email to &quot;get to the bottom of things&quot;, rather than stay &quot;on top of things&quot;.<p>I am trying to get into an area called pseudorandomness, and Knuth vol 2. 3rd edition has an excellent treatment of the subject in all its incarnations. The details that are in the book beat even the original research articles where the results first came in. So I refer to Knuth first to see if it is there, and then go to the research articles!<p>Bottom Line: To get the details correct, trust Knuth, rather than a random blog article on the web on the same topic.