[steven]

I'd like to add that I have grown to hate language textbooks-- even still, that grammar book was great for me. What worked for me was reading through it (the whole thing... it's quite long) a couple-few times. At the time, I was in contact with a lot of study abroad students (who were from Japan) so the more I read that book, the more I was able to pick up what they were saying (although there was a TON of stuff that is used in spoken Japanese that this book doesn't cover). I even showed it to some friends and they were kind enough to go through it and show me which examples were the most natural. That was really helpful.

I have the second and third book in the series as well. To be honest, if you can understand most of what is in the first book (when you hear it from a native speaker, that is), you might not need the second or third book. I have looked at the second book a handful of times, and don't really recall ever looking at the third one besides the day I got it. The first one was truly a great investment though. (It's bright yellow, so it will always stand out on your bookshelf asking you to look over it if even for just 5 minutes).