Best Textbook For begginers

[Earl]

こんにちわｱｰﾙです、どうぞよろしく。

I have been studying Japanese for a couple of months now, in my spare time. Unfortunatly there arent any begginers classes in my hometown so i will have to make do with self study. I have been using Jpod101 to learn japanese so far and have recently completled Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura's "Lets learn Hiragana" and "Lets learn Katakana" respectively, I have also purchased "Lets learn Kanji" from the same author. However i am looking for a begginers textbook that i could work away at unaided and still gain benefits of classroom learning (if that makes sense?). What textbook did you start of with as a begginer? Are their any textbooks you would reccomend?

ありがとう

にほんごのべんきょはたのしいですか。

[spare_change]

I don't think these could be considered text books but as a beginner I have personally found them useful and most importantly for me, affordable.

Teach Yourself Beginners Japanese
The Complete Idiots Guide to Conversational Japanese

After that I must admit the most useful thing for me has been this site right here.

[Psy]

People will argue the pros and cons to each, but by and large it's hard to go wrong with any of these as introductions:

Genki I & II
Minna no Nihongo I & II
Japanese Step by Step
Japanese the Manga Way
This site and its associated book.

Naoko Chino's All About Particles and Yonekawa's Beyond Polite Japanese are also cool references once you're past the introductory stage. Aside from that there are a ton of online resources available to the curious and inquisitive minds.

[johnpa]

Earl,
Let me add that you made an excellent choice with "Let's Learn Kanji"! I wish it had been my first kanji book, but at least I'm glad I discovered it along the way. It teaches you all the necessary skills for breaking down any kanji into it's constituent elements and drawing it correctly. If you take the time to properly master the basic skills, the rest is just memorization.
(Now if I could just find a book that makes learning grammar as easy as learning kanji...)

[untmdsprt]

Japanese for Busy People series is also a good selection for beginners.