Rating: 
Summary: Excellent concise book on c
Review: I found this one of the highest rated books on C a couple of years ago, so I bought it. I wanted an introduction to C before moving on to C++. I had already used "Practical C Programming" but became frustrated with it after its horrible explanation of pointers. Parts of this book are a little difficult as he uses some high-school level math(grin), and there are some pretty advanced functions with regards to sorting and linked lists, but the book gave me exactly what I needed, an intellegent, concise, and precise introduction to C. Following each section are numerous exercises to test what you learned. Think of this book as a great starting point, if you have moderate intelligence...
Rating: 
Summary: The worst C book I have ever read
Review: This is the first time I ever wrote a review. I have to write this because I feel angry after spending $...(Canadian dollar) on this book. It was the simply worst book i ever read on C. It does not offer any insight. The book is full of syntex rules and idiot examples. This book is un-readable. I have to force myself to read it because I spent so much money on this one. I am regret of this. Avoid this book at all cost. instead get a book that teach you something deeper. This is a book that is for absolute beginnner,someone who never seeing a program before.Even though i was trying hard to finish reading this book, I could not continue after 6 chapters because it just not engaging at all. The authors don't even try to explain anything worth explaining, they just stating syntex after syntex. no real insight at all. no explaination on some difficult topics, I was often left wonder why? This book covers easy topics. This made the author's lifes easier, but rip off our readers the money and our time. It looks like there is no real effort by the authors to teach anything decent. I don't understand where all the stars come from for this book's review. It is the worst I ever read, period. Next time when I buy a book I will be more careful as to what I buy because some books out there cost a lot but just doesn't deliver any quality. This is a prime example. Avoid it or you will be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Great programming book
Review: I found this book very easy to read, even though English is not my native language. Also it is a very rewarding book, because in the first chapter, you already learn the basics of C programming and I found myself able to do some quite cool things ;)
The other chapters expand on the subjects briefly explained in the first chapter and you can read them when there is a need to.
I think its a very complete book and it gets into some advanced things too, but it always sticks with an easy to understand approach.
I was surprised to understand it all so easily. While still learning to do some complicated tricks. I've read programming books before, but they all had one of two problems: too simplistic approach or too complicated explanations. This book doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: This book rocks!
Review: This book covers a LOT of material... very well and with good detail I might add. It has clear examples, although it does leave some of the nuances of the explanation up to the reader to figure out completely. That's not necessarily a bad thing though - when you have to look at something for a few seconds before you go "Oh... i understand what he did" - you'll probably remember it. As opposed to those "I stupid, spoon feed me the information"-type books. With those, you find yourself going "Yeah, that's easy, next..." thinking you understand it without REALLY looking at it and thinking about it. Then you go to apply it and find out you dont really understand it after all.Bottom line: this book doesn't pretend that you can learn C without putting forth a little effort. It's great for beginners who aren't too lazy to work at it a little, and still useful as a reference for the advanced C programmer. It's a great book - if you plan on doing C programming, it belongs on your shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Really decent.
Review: I bought this book two years ago when taking an intro to C course in college. I have referenced this book more often than any other I have on C. I continue to find new things I am learning about in classes treated well in the text. The balance of material pertaining to UNIX and other systems is good, and I particularly like the treatement of pointers and arrays. This is not a book to get you up to speed on C quickly. You have to take time with the examples and problems. I think it has something for everyone, whether you understand nothing or need advanced topic treatment, get it. It even makes a good quick reference.
Rating: 
Summary: Too simple, many subjects, no profound covering
Review: This book's got its qualities, that's true. But it's got plenty of problems also. The language is simple and it is focused on beginners. It covers a lot of important topics and emphasizes common errors programmers usally make. The step-by-step program dissections are a great idea. The book, however, often looses too much time on very simple issues and overlooks more difficult ones, perhaps to keep the book simple. The authors did not realise that this omission had a counter effect, however. It kept the book more difficult, more obscure. Moreover, it scaries the reader by showing some concerns he should abide while programming but not explaining how exactly he should work to nullify them.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books on C coding
Review: I own several books on C, including many fast "Teach yourself C in 24h" and "21 days" titles. Kernighan's book is also classic, but it's too condensed, lacks some detailed explanations and is now a bit dated maybe. Still a good referece and the book everybody will tell you about, but if I could have only one C book, I'd keep this one instead. A book on C is still my favorite. This book is very well written, covering the usual topics, probably in the usual order, but most of the time, in a very readable and clear way. If you're a beginner some parts might be too complex for you, but with time, you'll get there. The introduction to Javascript and C++ is a nice extra too. The shocked reviewer who is a beginning programmer has a point, this is not a book for absolute beginners, but if you know the basics of programming, and a little C, you won't want to miss this book, and you surely won't rate it 1 out of 5. :-) Kelley and Pohl do know how to teach, but if you know 0 when you start, you will find it a "bad" book. If you know nothing, don't spend your money unless you know you are dedicated enough to force yourself to read it while searching basic books, or, best option, read a couple of "teach yourself C in 24h "-type books first. This doesn't mean begginers can't use this book. If you know the basics about programming structure and have used other languages before, that is probably enough to be able to use Pohl's book. Very competent title, useful if you know little about C, and still a good reference for experienced coders. Probably one of the top 5 best C books.
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Summary: ABC ? It must stands for "A very Bad book on C !"
Review: Contrary to what the title of this book implies, this is one of the worst book I've ever read, and I regret I bought the book. Let me tell you a story. As a college student I had some difficulties finding a good grip on C's complexities so I just did my best to pass the subject and forget all about C. Now as a professional, I must learn the language and searching for a book to teach me quickly, I UNFORTUNATELY stumbled on this book and after browsing through the pages, I was more confused than ever. The teaching style is TERRIBLE ! Alhough I learned a thing or two, it took me sometime, definitely NOT A TUTORIAL ! NOT FOR BEGINNERS ! For those wanting to learn C the SUREST and FASTEST way, I highly recommend "THE C PRIMER by Les Hancock and Morris Krieger". Kelley and Pohl maybe knows C, but they definitely do not know how to teach the language !
Rating:
Summary: Academic NOT How-To
Review: This is a great book. Yes, I too first thought it was terrible because it is NOT a 21 Days for Morons type of book. This book covers 95% of everything there is to know about C. It is all there. My 3rd ed is extremely well worn. There is a reason this book is chosen by universities. It has real, useful code. If you were to program up all the examples in this book, you'd have yourself a nice little library of functions. Multi-dimensional dynamic arrays, numerical methods, data structures. All useful in future classes and on the job for those who program real C and not "Hello, World!"
Rating:
Summary: I used to believe in customer reviews!
Review: I used to believe in customer reviews. But after reading the reviews of this book.... This is one of the worst books on C in print and THE worst text book I have ever come across. It was selected by the curriculum committee for use in our school's C programming classes. Student complaints have been universal - the book is poorly organized, the examples confusing, and the use of Backus-Naur Form (originally developed in the 60's!) is worse than confusing. To cite just a few examples of the problems with this book: in Chapter 1, Paragraph 1.1, the book refers to "Commonly available operations systems include MS-DOS and UNIX." There is no mention of Windows in the entire book. Now, I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but to ignore Windows in a programming book copyright 1998? Another complaint about the book is its heavy use of advanced mathematics in the examples. Not everyone has completed calculus before starting to learn programming. Example: in discussing recursion, a table shows "Number of function calls required to recursively compute fibonacci(n)". In the chapter on arrays and pointers, it develops the example "Finding a root by bisection". It is difficult to follow the example if you have no idea of what the example is supposed to be doing. Which leads to the next complaint, which may or may not be justified, depending on your reasons for choosing the book. It never addresses the topic of program design: HOW you determine what steps to perform. It simply discusses "this is what the if (or switch, or while, or whatever) statement is and what it does. Even the writing style has drawn complaints. The authors are exceeding proud of their California vocabularies. From Chapter 2, Syntax Rules: "To the compiler, program text is implicitly a single stream of characters, but to the human reader, it is a two-dimensional tableau." a.k.a. the compiler ignores white space. For my fall classes, I have already replaced this text with Problem Solving & Program Design in C by Hanly and Koffman. It is light years beyond A Book on C in both organization and content. It covers not only HOW to use a statement, but WHEN to use it. There are other good C books, especially those by Kernigan and Ritchie (the famous K & R you see so often). I hope this helps my "human readers" in making a choice.
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