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Are there really people who actually read this many textbooks? I read half the textbook “Rigid Body Dynamics Algorithms” and it took a couple months. And I had time because I read it for a research project in grad school. I can’t imagine going home after work and grinding these textbooks for years.

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Well I do, some of them. But only for studying a few specific topics.

I used to have the copy of TAOCP vol 1 - 3, and eventually only read vol 2 because I was interested in (pseudo) random number at that time.... :D

How long did it take you to read these 3 books and did you read them in depth?

I never finished them, mainly because I treated them as references, e.g for in-depth mathematical analysis :D

Say for studying data structures, I'd recommend a general text book like Weiss or Sedgewick. It's very rare I study Knuth directly.

> eventually only read vol 2 because I was interested in (pseudo) random number at that time

Your comment comes at the perfect time, I am looking at learning about random number functions and tests of randomness myself. Do you have any other resources about these topics?

Some statistics books, perhaps? I think there are some references on them. I don't study random numbers anymore because my interest changed few years ago.

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