[kirlanda4ever]

Hi, I actually started to self teach myself japanese in the beginning of 2007. But school and projects got in the way and I was only able to memorize hiragana and katakana and a little bit about sentence structure. But I recently just got back into learning it. Right now I'm learning kanji, I only know like 11 since I started last week(I know, I could do more, but I have school too T.T) But the real problem that I'm having isn't memorizing, retaining the new words that I learn. This happens every time I try to practice writing sentences, I come up with a blank. Its like I only know them when I see them. Words like pencil, magazine, library, newspaper, food, etc, I don't know what they are called in japanese off the top of my head, but if I was to read and sound it out in hiragana and katakana, i know what it is. weird, i know. Does anyone know any books and tip that focuses purely on japanese vocabulary? If so, This will help me greatly.
Onegaishimasu!!!