[dfan]

It's odd to me that the author describes CLRS as graduate-level. It (back when it was CLR and in its first edition) was the text in my undergrad Introduction to Algorithms class (taught by L!).

I agree that Sedgewick belongs in this comparison, but I can't fault the author for not having read it. I think it's the book I would most easily recommend to others; it's quite clear and has lots of very nice visualizations. I do think that Skiena deserves a special mention for explicitly being about how to come up with your own fundamental algorithms and data structures rather than just plug an existing one into your program.

[arthurjj]

CLRS was also the undergraduate textbook at my school, RIT. I didn't think it did a very good job of explaining algorithms if you didn't already have a good grasp of them.

Skiena on the other hand does a nice job of both describing the algorithm in a straightforward manner and also getting you into the algorithm headspace.