What can you say about the work of Donald Knuth "The Art of Programming"?

Question

Programming

The question concerns only those who have read at least one volume in its entirety.
I came across this work in a bookstore (Donald Knuth "The Art of Programming" goo.gl/YFNyu )
The book is authoritative, the questions are considered very non-trivial.
I tried to read ... It's not easy to understand, you have to re-read separate pieces and return to the previous paragraph.
Share your general impressions of the book.
How much did this book give you, how often do you use this knowledge in practice, do you think that every programmer should read it?

Answer 1

Lots of math. It's hard to understand without it.
Gives a very good base on algorithms and programming, _provided_ that the base of mathematics is already good. Without a mathematical base, reading is almost useless; at best, it will end in memorizing algorithms without understanding their essence and the ability to build them - and God forbid, this is 10% of the book.
Students in "applied mathematics" mastered, students of purely "computer" specialties usually did not pull.
In practice, there seems to be no direct and explicit application on the one hand - i.e. just like that, just to screw in the algorithm from the book somewhere - there was no such thing (they mastered all three volumes at the time, it was very interesting and informative), but on the other hand, the book gave an excellent base for understanding what, how and why it works and what how and why to do it, and without reading it, in many cases we would not have found good solutions quickly or would not have found them at all, or would not even suspect that they might exist.
For a serious programmer - IMHO - be sure to read and understand from cover to cover.

Answer 2

I read some four volumes of Knuth, the algorithms are normally told, I hate its assembler, even in Pascal or BASIC it would be better.
I read it as a schoolboy, I read the last volume already at the university.

Answer 3

From the category of books that everyone advises, but no one reads :).
There is a slightly easier book, I highly recommend it:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Algorithms
ps I read it :)