what book is the best to learn C from
I have programed in assembly and basic so I have a pretty good idea of how computers and programming work

The C programming language, 2nd edition, Kernighan & Richie (the guys who created the language...)

I tried K&R, but personally I preferred Sam's "How to Learn C in 21 Days", so I switched over to that - it's meant for people with no programming experience, so you can skim the first few chapters quite easily.

John G

Yeah, that's probably the best reference for it, that's what I'd get.

However, do be a bit more specific as to what you want out of the book. Either way, the "white bible" is a good choice.

"C Primer Plus" by Prata (published by Sams)

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Actually I have that one too, it's also a good book. Not quite so will organized, but very thorough.

+1 for K+R 2e, it's so breathtakingly elegant; those guys were pure geniuses (genii?).

Ivor Horton's "Beginning C" (Apress).

The Complete Reference C by Herbert Schildt

For POSIX I always keep my copy of "Advanced Programming for the Unix Environment" close by.

My standard advice on books: no one book is good enough for a subject about which you are serious. For learning, you will want something tutorial in nature, with simple examples. Soon after using that, you will need a reference book, with just the bare facts organized by small subjects, such as function names. Then, you will want something more meaty, or possibly problem-specific. I trust most things published by O'Reilly, especially of the reference category. Dummies books, might suffice for a while as a first tutorial.

--- rod.

K&R is good, but a bit terse. I've used this http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~pohl/abc4.html a lot. They do line-by-line explanations of their sample progs, so you get a really clear idea of what is going on.
For advanced stuff I like http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Program.../dp/0131774298

I got the white bible very well presented and they DO assume basic computer knowledge on the part of the reader

but I will be checking out these other books when I can

Cool, thanks I didn't know about that one.

For more free books, I know there's:
http://www.duckware.com/bugfreec/index.html
http://publications.gbdirect.co.uk/c_book/

listed http://www.computer-books.us/c.php

I love this one!!! And it's really pleasant to read.

I'm a technical books addict (I think not a so common addiction), and thanks to amazon, I can feed my addiction without spending so much... Here's my best of:

"C traps and pitfalls" by Koenig, the second book on C to read when beginning, after the bible (the K&R of course)
"Expert C programming" by Van der Linden, as I'm not english, it takes me a while to understand the connection between the wrapper, and the 2nd title, "deep C secret"...
"Safer C" by Les Hatton, not for the beginner but if you want to make serious C programming, you can not go without it.
"C unleashed" introduces some interesting techniques

If you're interested in numerical processes, two more titles:
"C language algorithms for signal digital processing" by Embree and Kimble
"Numerical recipes", the C version (didn't read the C++ one)