[Jtsummers]

Concrete Mathematics, which isn't the easiest but also not the hardest math textbook, developed out of a course teaching the math from Chapter 1 of TAOCP. For people who find the first chapter, in particular, intimidating because of the math portions, it may be a good option to study before resuming TAOCP rather than just dropping TAOCP.

[Breza]

+1 for Concrete Mathematics. Learning more about discrete math had an immediate impact on my job as a data scientist.