I learned C first in high school because I found a pirated copy of "Learn C in 24 Hours" online, and I actually felt that they did a reasonably good job getting me started, though if I recall correctly some of their examples with pointers and memory management were actually incorrect. Still, it was enough to make programming interesting to me, and when I dropped out of college the first time I was able to salvage a somewhat decent career because of that interest.
