The c programming language by ritchie and kernighan. As far as C goes I don't think I've come across anything more helpful.
Another cool book i'd recommend are the "hacking : the art of exploitation" series. Some of the methods are pretty antiquated as far as "hacking" goes but it's a compendium of really interesting things that programs can do. I've got the first edition and it's got some C, asm, and perl as well as some introductory stuff on networking.
If you want to see some examples right away in any language head to books that have "in 24 hours" (or something like that) are the best route. They don't have a lot of theory but they've got tons of examples that can be used right then and there. The downside is that taking that approach and be frustrating. I tried that approach when I started out and would get syntax errors galore if I wasn't careful.
