I recently started trying to understand non-cryptographic hash functions and pretty much every text out there ends up referencing Knuth without really explainin

I recently started trying to understand non-cryptographic hash functions and pretty much every text out there ends up referencing Knuth without really explaining it deeply. Hashing (not hash tables, just hashing) is a subject that pretty much every book seems to ignore and just go with the "here, use this hashing thing because Knuth said so [TAOCP volume 3]". I had to buy it. That said, I also read other chapters when I had the need to understand specific things.