[qohen]

For anyone looking for an easier on-ramp for algorithms -- i.e. not a textbook -- I got an email last night from Manning about a book-in-progress of theirs called "Grokking Algorithms" [1], which looks to be pretty user-friendly (i.e. it's conversational, has pictures, etc.). There's a free sample chapter on the book's page if you want to see the style.

Sadly, the book was 50%-off yesterday as their daily deal, but if you sign up with Manning, there will likely be other sale categories that'll include the book (e.g a 50%-off sale on all books-in-progress or whatever). Given that only the first 2 chapters are available at the moment, you might be able to wait for another sale to come round.

[1] http://www.manning.com/bhargava/