The idea is that you put together the few macros that you need and then the book is mostly tag-free. IDK you can find the source to the TeXbook on CTAN, see if

The idea is that you put together the few macros that you need and then the book is mostly tag-free. IDK you can find the source to the TeXbook on CTAN, see if it seems too noisy to you (I don't remember).