I don't know if it is true about that book in particular, but if I'm buying a textbook as a resource I usually look for the international editions. They sell near identical versions of the books (shuffle the problem sets around) in other places around for much, much less.
For more rudimentary papers, any undergrad course on discrete mathematics should get you started. I personally was forced to read http://www.amazon.com/Discrete-Mathematics-Applications-Susa... - and it's pretty decent.