I think it's the sheer, awe-inspiring _quantity_ of high-level material that's hard to take. I've read parts of of TAOCP very deeply - implementing things, tryi

I think it's the sheer, awe-inspiring _quantity_ of high-level material that's hard to take. I've read parts of of TAOCP very deeply - implementing things, trying exercises, etc. and it is rewarding/exhausting. I doubt that I've worked through much more than 70-80 pages in this fashion from all of the books. Given enough time, one could probably do this for the whole series to date, but I'd like to at least be working part-time before attempting it. I never believed the story. It seemed out-of-character vulgar and hostile for Knuth.