I don't see where we are disagreeing here - Vazirani/Dasgupta is not as detailed/rigorous as CLRS and that is precisely the point. The detail of CLRS comes at the cost of readability.
I'm not denying that I enjoyed learning from CLRS - but I recollect having to take more effort to parse its detailed pseudo-code than what a higher level of abstraction would've taken.
This is where a book with less detail like Vazirani can help. I would never recommend relying on a single text for studying anything - least of all Algorithms. Each of these complement the others in a nice way and being able to look at the same concept from the perspective of different authors always help.
You've pointed to the 3 one-star reviews instead of the 17 five-star reviews of the book. Was that a mistake? Joking aside, those reviews seem to be from people who've tried to use Vazirani as their sole Algorithms text. Having seen CLRS first, I've always approached Vazirani as a complement to CLRS and that worked.
I'm not denying that I enjoyed learning from CLRS - but I recollect having to take more effort to parse its detailed pseudo-code than what a higher level of abstraction would've taken.
This is where a book with less detail like Vazirani can help. I would never recommend relying on a single text for studying anything - least of all Algorithms. Each of these complement the others in a nice way and being able to look at the same concept from the perspective of different authors always help.
> The Vazirani/Dasgupta book does not go into as much detail. You don't believe me that this book is bad? Read some of the Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/product-rev....
You've pointed to the 3 one-star reviews instead of the 17 five-star reviews of the book. Was that a mistake? Joking aside, those reviews seem to be from people who've tried to use Vazirani as their sole Algorithms text. Having seen CLRS first, I've always approached Vazirani as a complement to CLRS and that worked.