There are two text books that I most love and am most afraid of in the wold: Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et al. and Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Norvig et al. I have started the "AI: a modern approach" more than once, but the book is so dense and full of theory that I get discouraged after a couple of weeks and stop.

I am looking for a similar AI book but with an equal emphasis on theory and practice. Some examples of what I am looking for:

• The Elements of Statistical Learning by Tibshirani et al. (detailed theory)
• An Introduction to Statistical Learning: With Applications in R by Tibshirani et al. (theory+practical)
• Digital Image Processing by Gonzalez et al. (detailed theory)
• Digital Image Processing Using MATLAB by Gonzalez et al. (theory+practical)

Apologies if this is not the place for such a question.