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.

Is there any way you could find it at a library?

Libraries usually keep Indian editions of the book. I haven't checked for TAOCP but that was atleast the case with Kernighan and Ritchie.

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.