>My biggest concern was that if in the future I end up buying a new book, how can I be sure it is the same book that I expected to be delivered, without any page messups or other oddities.
It sucks. They make cheap [x] so that more people can afford to buy [x] for a lot of values of [x], and sometimes the cheap version just doesn't live up to what you want.
Do you have access to a university library? One thing about Knuth -- he gets cited a lot, so I figure I'll absorb some of the choicest parts without having to go to the source. I have to admire your ambition to just charge through it.
Its actually a fun read once you start approaching it sequentially. I haven't read all of it yet, but whatever I have read, its been interesting and not that difficult.
"At this point, all I hope is that PearsonEd makes the changes and fixes the pages in the new version and releases it. Until then, I shall have to fix my copy of TAOCP on my own or buy an expensive original edition."
How many developers (students and those entering the field) in India can afford such a high price? We take a lot of the knowledge we get in the West for granted, but the rest of the world isn't so lucky.
Just buy the American edition, problem solved.