The Head First series gets treated a bit like the For Dummies series of old however I think it is a bit unfair. I read Head First C a year ago and it is a fantastic introduction to C. I was really impressed to see an intro to C book (not intro to programming, you do need to already understand another language before reading the book) cover subjects such as threading and network programming. Most books on C don't go anywhere near that stuff which is a shame as it makes programming a lot more interesting IMHO.