"Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen, et al came across as not practical? That book is personally my favorite. What are your criteria when judging a book as practical?
As someone else mentioned, you might like Sedgewick's books, but it's hard to tell without knowing what your criteria are.
Hey jey, I came across that book at the local bookstore, and perused it for a while. What I meant by practical was a book that gave me something to get my hands dirty with vs mathematical theories, thats all. Maybe that was a little shortsighted, and considering a lot of the other comments suggest the very same book, I will take a look at it again. Thanks!
Algorithms are mathematical theories. You're not going to be able to learn them through code alone.
There are certainly less dense introductions to the subject, but Cormen is the classic that you'll see on every good programmer's shelf (and they even read it, too!)
Edit -- "Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis" by Mark Allen Weiss is an example of a common, less-dense introductory text. It's actually not bad, given its intent.
As someone else mentioned, you might like Sedgewick's books, but it's hard to tell without knowing what your criteria are.