Reading code written by experienced programmers helps you learn the idiomatic ways of using a language. With regards to C, I learnt it by reading John Lion's a

Reading code written by experienced programmers helps you learn the idiomatic ways of using a language. With regards to C, I learnt it by reading John Lion's annotated listings of Unix v6. It was far more educational than just working through K&R C. Although the latter was helpful in unravelling the logic underlying some of the more complicated constructs. With regards to Python and C, C pointers to structs are comparable to passing objects by reference. Different syntax, similar semantics.