I generally agree that if you use *nix, you eventually should learn C. And K&R is still a lucid book that teaches the fundamentals well. You can progress to C++ if you want, but you can go a long way on C alone.
I also would not overlook the suggestion for learning shell scripting. This is used a great deal; some respected people on this board cannot program but are accomplished in writing shell scripts. For sysadmin sorts of things (including deciphering ports) this is an incredibly useful skill.
So I personally would suggest the latter, but have a great deal of sympathy for the former. Indeed, if you know C, you can pick up scripting and AWK (for example) very quickly. All of the traditional Unix tools use C-like syntax.
It does help to have a project in mind. A lot.
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