Quote Originally Posted by BBc View Post
I am working on my CS degree, and I would like to read Knuth's books eventually. What level of mathematical and programming expertise do I need to understand books 1-3?
It's been a while since I pulled out Knuth, but as I recall, it varies. (If nothing else, the problem sets range from easy to unsolved)

For the most part, the writing is very clear (he puts a lot of effort into it) but also quite concise (he covers a LOT of material!), so you may have to spend a bit of time working through exactly what's going on when you're reading about something unfamiliar. It's more of a reference than a textbook, so there's not a lot of handholding.