This post only contains non-aff links While I'm certainly good at C, and have been the guy people asked the C and C toolchain questions at a couple places I've

This post only contains non-aff links While I'm certainly good at C, and have been the guy people asked the C and C toolchain questions at a couple places I've worked, I'd say you're in for more than 1 book to grok the topics you've expressed interest in, and haven't met the single book that does all you want. 1: If you're a python programmer, I do suggest staying with pure C and AWAY from C++. You have little use case for it if you can mix python and C and it is literally pain incarnate while you do not know every little bit of it and/or work with people who do not know every little bit of it. 2: Secondly, a single book on C will not get you where you're going. You will need several. 3: I'd stick with K&R for reference, but then go to the following two books for threading and all the other stuff like networking: You need these two books to get down C and it's ecosystem (make, autotools, etc): Advanced Unix Programming by Rochkind (Really good explanation of signals especially): http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-UNIX-Programming-Marc-Rochkind/dp/0131411543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269362485&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-UNIX-Programming-Marc-Rochkin... Gnu/Linux Application Programming by M. Tim Jones (Recovers some of the same stuff as AUP, but does better with the toolchain): http://www.amazon.com/GNU-Linux-Application-Programming/dp/1584505680/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269362580&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/GNU-Linux-Application-Programming/dp/1... If you want to go more advanced, this is likely the correct book: Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment: http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-2nd/dp/0201433079/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269362485&sr=8-2 http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Programming-UNIX-Environment-... Although if you're diving deep into networking, this is likely the correct book: Unix Networking Programming: Vol I by Stevens: http://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Networking/dp/0131411551/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269362819&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Netwo...