Rating: 
Summary: A painless and humorous introduction to C
Review: I tried to read many books when I was first learning C, and found it hard to get anywhere. They all seemed to assume that I knew the inner workings of the language before I'd even started. What the heck was a preprocessor? What were headers and libraries? What was going on?!Then I found this book. Admittedly, it starts at a very slow pace, but it explains so clearly and in such a humorous, irreverent style that I just couldn't stop reading. Even the extended chapter on pointers was well-explained with many example programs. My only complaint is that there isn't a third volume with more advanced topics because, even now, I find most other books on C to be overly-technical, dry and often downright pretentious. Kudos to Dan Gookin!
Rating:
Summary: Gookin is a genius
Review: Dan Gookin is a genius. He started the dummies series(I think) with DOS for Dummies, which was incredible (though outdated). He takes technical writing to another level. I picked up this book a few years ago, after I had tried a more text-book like book to learn C. What a differance in styles. I laughed out loud more than once, and picked up everything very quickly. I do agree with the people that say he goes a bit slow, but its not that bad. I have read many other programming books since, but I found nothing that compares, even in the Dummies series. As to the people that say don't bother learning 'C', just learn 'C++'. It is much easier to go from C to C++, and C is still commonly used in the workplace still, not to mention 'legacy' code. A tip: when done with this book, do not buy C++ for dummies, it is terrible. Gookin - Keep writing!
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: This book was a complete waste of time for me. It barely teaches you anything after reading the first volume. What took 1000 pages in this book I can learn in in 100 pages of another book. The author uses so much humor in this book that it gets extremely frustrating. For example, in the quizes after each section he gives a question with multiple choice answers. There are amazingly stupid answers to choose from leaving you with only one logical answer. He might as well just give you the answer rather than writing down bs. He repeats each example over and over again which makes it frustrating. I found myself repeating the same things withouth learning anything new. The only time I would recommend this book if you were some moron who has an iq of 90 and can barely read or if you're a 10 year old and doesn't know what you're doing. It's ridiculous how simple it is he teaches you. It takes the author 20 pages to teach you something you can easily learn in anotehr book in 1 page. I recommend C Primer Plus by Stephen Prata rather than this piece of garbage.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable for 1st and 2nd year CS majors
Review: I'm a 2nd year computer science major and we use K&R (The C Programming Language 2nd Edition ANSI version) in class. I find it incredibly dry and boring, although I suppose it's terse and to the point. C for Dummies can be repetitious at times but I find that I need and appreciate that. And yeah, the quizzes are dumb but who's taking them anyway? I get enough in class. :) The sections on pointers or structures alone are well worth the price of admission. The index is especially well done. It's easy to jump around, scan and use the book as a reference guide. I also like the "cheat sheet" containing hints and tips that you can rip out and keep by your computer.
SIDE NOTES: Even as a neophyte programmer, I was able to jump pretty much straight into Vol. 2, having only a year of Java experience previously. Also, we use unix gcc at the university and Gookin uses Borland C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ to compile. An earlier reviewer seemed to think that excluding gcc was wrong but I don't think it makes much of a difference -- the fundamental concepts and implementations are the same. The header files Gookin uses are the same as the ones we use in class with unix, too. All in all, Gookin's Vol. 2 is a great book. I haven't looked at Vol. 1 at all but I have no regrets buying the 2-volume set.
Rating:
Summary: A different kind of self teaching
Review: I've read books before that try to teach you something difficult, like..oh..really understanding Windows 95. But
this book doesn't throw you into the Sea of C without a life
jacket. The author, starts out with a laugh and ends with
a laugh. If the author wasn't such a good programmer, I'd suggest that he get a job as a comedian. But even though
he does make a lot of jokes, he accomplishes teaching you a
somewhat difficult thing, the C programming language. Wow,
a self teaching book that actually accomplishes what it sets
out to do. Oh my God, I would have just bought the book to see that. The author walks you through C with alot of
examples, and ALOT of patience. The only reason I didn't give
the book a perfect 10 is because it doesn't go through the majority of the language. There's a second volume which I am still waiting for. But since it is going to be written by
the same author, I will of course be first in line to buy it.
Rating:
Summary: A C Book for the Uninitiated
Review: This is one of the finest book for learning the terse programming language C.Author Dan Gookin takes a very humourous approach to make the whole learning process very easy.Anyone without any clue to programming can start programming in C just going through a few early chapters. If you want to learn C and do not have any idea what it's all about this the book for you.This book might not be for serious programmers but for the beginner it is a wonderful book. The easiest & the best. Thanks Dan.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent but too political.
Review: The author has a good grasp of the C language and a great writing style. My only problem with the book is the liberaterian political message that keeps showing up. Perhaps the best way to help the economy is to cut taxes, but whether I agree or not, I don't like to hear about it when I'm learning C.
I gave this 4 stars because it's a good book. I would have given it 5 except that I kept having to hold my nose every time I opened the book. I finally had to give the book away and get the idiot's guide instead.
Rating:
Summary: Outdated
Review: This book is soooo outdated. I am a twelve-year old who has read this book, and tried some of the graphic-like things in the book. They do not work because the author has not tried to make a new edition of this book. Plus on top of that the quizes are horrible. You know the only right answer is right only because it looks like C, not becuase you know the answer. Also this book does not cover that much. let me change that, this book covers as much as adding 1 + 1. No wonder they need two volumes just to make this book worth selling. Take my advice, and buy another book that actually gives you the knowledge to program, and is not outdated.
Rating:
Summary: A book for the rebelious and compassionate,not the snobbish
Review: I am a systems integrator currently learning and sifting through
a few programming languages in a short period of time in an effort to find out which language best suites my needs as a POS
programmer. If you need to pick up the basics of the C language,
e.g. all the "keywords" what they mean and not all the teenage
academic snobbyism of most other books I have read(that do nothing but basically brag about how much they know about terminology and that using this word instead of that word is not
cool thing.) Dan rips on these people all through his book, that is probably what I liked most about it. It covers concepts in a slow highly detailed fashion. There is nothing left out of the C syntax that is not described in these books. All the questions that came to mind when reading the source code examples were eventually answered by the end of each chapter.
When I look at almost any c source I can successfully debug and
see what is happening. People that give these books bad reviews,
are obviously bratty little teenage kids that think that they are geniuses because they know C and that normal people can't learn it. Dan, I salute thee... A truly marvelous work of art.
Rating:
Summary: Not for people who want to use this book with GNU/Linux.
Review: If anyone isn't using Windows with either Visual C/C++ or Borland then be warned that this isn't the book your looking for to learn C. I only have only acess to a GNU/Linux and use GCC as my main C compiler. Most of the code examples are oriented towards Windows/DOS systems because it uses the dos.h header for the programs in the book.
Ontop of that this book is very much watered down. It takes until the second book that you learn about what header files are, which by the time I got to that book (mostly skimming through the first book) I had already figured it out on my own.
I suggest people to buy the K&R C Programming book instead of these books.
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