I wonder, what might be a suitable set of books to read before TAOCP?
Might this one suffice: Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science (Knuth et.al.)
Might this one suffice: Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science (Knuth et.al.)
What I can say is that "Concrete Mathematics" is a terrific book. It is the best general "math for algorithms" book I have seen. Its exercises are wonderfully picked, with problems at all levels of difficulty and classified neatly into categories. It also discusses topics that for strange reasons are not as widely known as one would expect, even though they are extremely elegant and quite useful. A concrete example of this is the Euler-Maclaurin formula relating sums and integrals.