The book is fine. It is way better to start off by sorting words from stdin with K&R than to follow a tutorial to do a GUI window.

I thought the book by K.N. King was a great introduction to (modern) C [0]. Easy to follow, nice questions at end of each chapter including a few challenges.

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[0]: http://knking.com/books/c2/index.html

Maybe there aren't any good alternatives to "read this go to book as the first book on the topic". Prove me wrong. (Please)

If an absolute beginner were to use K&R as a start they'd be learning C from 35 or so years ago. It's well written, but not helpful as a reference. Even something as simple as how a function is organized has changed.

C Programming: a Modern Approach teaches C89 and C99, pointing out the differences in features when appropriate. Having used it myself this year, I found it much more helpful than K&R

If you start with the second edition (C89 / "ANSI C"), you'll discover that C has barely changed.

Yes, that's true. C Programming is largely a C89 book with small segments about C99.

I taught myself C using K&R when I was a teenager... back in 1991. The second edition was only a couple of years old.