My understanding is that the author is arguing that these books shouldn't be recommended reading for everyone. I bought Knuth's TAOCP and the Cormen book in hi

My understanding is that the author is arguing that these books shouldn't be recommended reading for everyone. I bought Knuth's TAOCP and the Cormen book in high-school to prepare for programming competitions. I never read TAOCP and probably never will, it was simply too complex for what I needed. CLRS was significantly easier to understand and I was able to read subchapters. Today I use neither, but rather recommend Skiena, Sedgewick or other specialised books. Not because TAOCP and CLRS are bad, but because these other books are more approachable and also get the job done.