by John Reekie, Rohan McAdam, Rohan James McAdam
ISBN: 0646458418
Buy on Amazon
Found in 1 comment on Hacker News
tjr · 2010-10-30 · Original thread
TAOCP is awesome. If I had been advised to read it when I was 15, I probably would have either studied it as hard as I could, or given up after the first few pages. It's pretty intense material for a beginner, in my opinion. But only you can judge for yourself. Take a look at a copy of it, if you can, before you buy it. TAOCP focuses on algorithms and other microscopic aspects of programming; it may not offer much insight into building whole software applications.

Also, you might consider looking at Don Knuth's book Concrete Mathematics, which is a somewhat more casual coverage of the math chapter in the first volume of TAOCP.

You mention in a comment that you want to learn software architecture. I really like this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Software-Architecture-Primer-John-Reek...

If you're into web applications at all, perhaps the best book to understand the basics of design is:

http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/

Either way, don't give up on TAOCP. Whether if you're ready for it now, or if you want to wait a few years, it's great that you're interested in reading it, and I would encourage you to study it as much as you can, if you discover that you are indeed intrigued by the topics it covers.