Good Books
 

What are the best books to use for japanese self instruction?

Does anyone have any suggestions, prefrences?

Depends on your current level and location. I have no idea about books available outside of Japan and beginner books, but I'll do my best to answer your question.

"Remembering the Kanji" is a series by some professor of Japanese who teaches in Japan. This approach to learning kanji is not for everyone since the meaning, pronunciation and combinations are taught separately. Also the books are quite expensive and do not cover actual speech/grammar. They are just for kanji.

"Japanese for Busy People" is a series that I prefer over the Minna no Nihongo (Japanese for everyone) series. I suppose this would be good for beginners but honestly I have no clue. I studied at a university where the professor wrote her own textbook.

Free stuff from the internet is also a good idea. Tae Kim's Japanese guide to Japanese grammar has the clearest explanations of Japanese grammar and spoken Japanese I have ever read. Listening stuff, I honestly do not enjoy the podcasts out there for learning Japanese. However that being said, for someone not living in Japan and exposed to Japanese they are a good tool to use. Either download from iTunes in the podcast section or google for some choices.

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention White Rabbit's Kanji Flashcards are awesome.

I use Colloquial Japanese as my book reference. It slowly introduces kanji, explains grammar points in depth. Has lots of reading writing practice, and overall I think it almost the best complete package. I would recommend you use a few resources if self studying. This is what i currently use.

-Colloquial Japanese
-Pimsleur Japanese
-Numerous websites
-I also go to a japanese class once a week which helps greatly

I'm just starting to learn japanese, so I'm looking more for a basics book. But those links I'm sure will come in handy later.

Not used JFBP, but I agree with your view on Minna No Nihongo... I used that in England with tutor before leaving and it just seemed really disjoint and felt like it was making things harder than they needed to be. When I got to Japan, I had a different tutor (who was also my translator for first few weeks) and she was using a course she had created herself which seemed to make everything fit together in a far more natural way