I read the first edition of K&R when it came out, and switched to C for a computer algebra system that got me tenure as a math professor. K&R is a religious scr

I read the first edition of K&R when it came out, and switched to C for a computer algebra system that got me tenure as a math professor. K&R is a religious scripture, and remains the benchmark against which I measure all other programming books. It's in the same league as the aspirational SICP, and a far easier read. In college I'd programmed Fortran on punched cards. APL was like dropping acid, and I worked one summer as a commercial APL programmer, but it wasn't appropriate for what I needed. Pascal didn't quite fit either. C was in that context mind-blowing. The future had arrived! I had full access to the machine! If one is learning to become a plumber, one might not be so interested in how plumbing worked in 1840. If however, one is a herding dog, and needs serious work to avoid getting bored and destructive, reading K&R would put C in historical context. Later, as I depended on C, I bought each edition of C: A Reference Manual by Harbison and Steele, and read it as if I were studying to be a lawyer. I now program in Haskell, and wish I was equally versed in Clojure and Rust. If I were returning to C, I'd instead choose Rust. For my work, I have a free choice.