> What does this mean in terms of years? My estimate for the not too persistent average person is, that working through (not only read once, forget) all of the

> What does this mean in terms of years? My estimate for the not too persistent average person is, that working through (not only read once, forget) all of the books listed on that website could well take 10 years. For someone very focused maybe 5 and for one working "day and night" on it maybe shorter. College courses don't go through books from start to finish. The instructor determines what's appropriate and what's left to the reader (and these books can be picked up many years later when someone recognize a gap in knowledge that's covered). However, what's missing from these books are group assignments and mentoring from a proper instructor. > Just to give an idea: SICP, the PDF version, has already 800+ pages and many many challenging exercises to solve. That alone could take a year or more, depending on how easily it comes to a person. You aren't supposed to go through the whole book, especially for an intro class using SICP.