I haven't read TAOCP; in what sense is it not a textbook? If I wanted to buy a book to learn about algorithms, TAOCP is the first that would come to mind, so sa

I haven't read TAOCP; in what sense is it not a textbook? If I wanted to buy a book to learn about algorithms, TAOCP is the first that would come to mind, so saying "you should buy this book instead of TAOCP" is potentially useful advice even if TAOCP is not technically a textbook. Are any of the criticisms of TAOCP wrong? ("Knuth's TAOCP is wonderful but: very, very long; now rather outdated in the range of algorithms it covers; describes algorithms with wordy descriptions, flowcharts, and assembly language for a computer of Knuth's own invention. When you need Knuth, you really need Knuth, but mostly you don't.") "Has read TAOCP" has low prior, but after reading this I have >50% confidence that the poster has read enough TAOCP to meaningfully compare it.