It seems like a lot of academics and hardcore computer science enthusiasts love CLRS. But I remember taking an algorithms course just a few months ago and that book was almost unreadable. A lot of my classmates shared the same sentiment. The math was dense and the explanations were unclear. Juggling several other CS classes that quarter, nobody had the time to work through it. Maybe I wasn't smart or patient enough to understand CLRS, but it just never made much sense to me, especially on more advanced topics of algorithm design.

I loved The Algorithm Design Manual. Used it for my class as well as preparing for technical interviews. Although looking back at it now, TADM is great for learning algorithms (quickly) for the very first time, while CLRS is a good reference manual once you already understand how they work.