Ask HN: Best Book(s) to Learn CS Degree Take-aways?

[ericb]

I'm mainly self-taught as a programmer. There are a variety of topics in a CS degree that I would like to study, like Big O and Sorting, Data structures, NP-Complete problems, Information Theory, etc.

I can teach myself most anything, if I'm working from a well-written, accessible, text. So I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a book, or small set of books, that will bootstrap the "important takeaways" from a CS degree?

[geekam]

"Introduction to Algorithms" (http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Second-Thomas-...)

"The Art of Computer Programming" (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_6_31?url=search-alias...)

....to begin with.

Then there are theoretical computer science books.

I like the Computability, Complexity, and Languages, Second Edition: Fundamentals of Theoretical Computer Science (Computer Science and Scientific Computing)

http://www.amazon.com/Computability-Complexity-Languages-Sec...

[snikolov → geekam]

Both solid choices. Having used CLRS (the Intro the Algorithms book), I would say it's a fantastic reference, but I found some of the presentation rather terse. It is nothing that a motivated reader can't power through, but some people have also suggested Kleinberg and Tardos's algorithms book for better pedagogical development http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...