Hi guys,
i'm new to programming and before i attempted to avr anything i finished a book on c programming. It's called Programming in C by Steve Kochan. I don't think this book is too popular, but for me it was such a pleasure to read. Everything is explained in detail, the guy is an amazing writer.
He has another book on objective c for the mac and i'm tempted to learn it because of how easy he makes it.
my .02