Funny, that's completely the opposite of what 99% of developers would say (C++ is wonderful, C is the problem).
C is a wonderful language. C++ is just it's bastard child.If you're looking for a book to learn plain C, you can't beat 'The C Programming Language' by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie (they invented C). ISBN 0-13-110362-8. It's only 272 pages, but every word in it will impart knowledge.