exploring C, yeshwant kanitkar is a good book if u want to practice programming in c , it covers a lot of cprograms. apart from this u can have venugopal rao\'s mastering in C and the most conceputal programs are given in the book called: C Programming language by kerningham and ritchie
If you are beginner in C, then i would prefer you to follow the book written by BALAGURUSWAMY, because in this book the description is written in easy language. And if you are interactive, then you can follow YESHWANT KANITKAR. And for your first sem, always remember, try to highlights your answers in your answerbook with keywords, because it helps is in fetching marks.