Schaum's Outline of Japanese Grammar

Rating:
Summary: Good for review if you have been cursed with JSL
Review: For those of you with the extreme misfortune of having to use Eleanor Jorden's abysmal text (Jorden's Solipsistic Language), this book may save your grade. It contains all of the grammar covered in first year Japanese. Furthermore, all examples are given in hiragana/katakana/kanji, with a romanji and an English translation. In other words, although this is a grammar survey, it also provides you with the reading practice that you'll need in order to achieve any degree of fluidity in Japanese. Cover up the English and the romanji lines and see how much you can read. You won't get all of the kanji, but even reading everything around the kanji will help you, and the more you see kanji, the less strange they seem. You will pick some up just from the frequency with which they appear. As for the grammar explanations: they are both concise and self-sufficient, just what a beginner needs. Finally, the book provides answers to all exercises, an often neglected feature of texts written by egomaniacs such as Eleanor Jorden. Buy this book if you want a clear and straightforward Japanese grammar book that offers exercises and solutions, in addition to reading practice and an easy to use index and table of contents.

Rating:
Summary: good value for money
Review: I bought this book a few months ago as it seemed to explain most of the essential points of Japanese grammar as well as provide exercises to test your understanding. At my local foreign language book shop, there was a plethora of Japanese language books to choose from but some only skimmed the surface where as others were great slab-like enclyclopaedias which should have come with a warning "contents under extreme pressure".
The book is divided into fifteen chapters and covers subjects such as adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, particles, conjunctions, verbs, conditional clauses, interrogative words, nominalization, honorific expresssions etc etc. The last chapter is particularly good because it illustrates several commonly used japanese expressions. There are nicely varied examples (written in english, romaji and kanji/kana) in every chapter with corresponding exercises and answers(great!).
Sure there were a few typos and dubious answers but i'm sure they will be edited when the next edition comes out. To tell you the truth, they didn't bother me much at all.
I would have given this book another half star if particles were explained in greater depth but that probably would have doubled the book's thickness.
Overall, a good buy

Rating:
Summary: good value for money
Review: I bought this book a few months ago as it seemed to explain most of the essential points of Japanese grammar as well as provide exercises to test your understanding. At my local foreign language book shop, there was a plethora of Japanese language books to choose from but some only skimmed the surface where as others were great slab-like enclyclopaedias which should have come with a warning "contents under extreme pressure".
The book is divided into fifteen chapters and covers subjects such as adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, particles, conjunctions, verbs, conditional clauses, interrogative words, nominalization, honorific expresssions etc etc. The last chapter is particularly good because it illustrates several commonly used japanese expressions. There are nicely varied examples (written in english, romaji and kanji/kana) in every chapter with corresponding exercises and answers(great!).
Sure there were a few typos and dubious answers but i'm sure they will be edited when the next edition comes out. To tell you the truth, they didn't bother me much at all.
I would have given this book another half star if particles were explained in greater depth but that probably would have doubled the book's thickness.
Overall, a good buy

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: I haven't read this book, but one reviewer said that they incorrectly used "wo" for the particle commonly represented as "o"-- this is false; "wo" is the name of the particle; the w sound is merely softer than that in "wa".

Rating:
Summary: Good idea, so-so execution
Review: When I first found this book, I was so glad, because as far as I know, it's the only grammar-intensive self-study Japanese textbook on the market. Every other textbook on learning Japanese is either for total beginners with lots of "fun" tourist-oriented sidebars, or is designed for classroom use. Here, finally, I thought, was a book that simply laid out the basic rules of Japanese grammar in a compact and concise manner. Perfect.

Now having worked my way through much of the book, however, my enthusiasm has waned. I still love the concept, and it HAS been helpful, but it's got a lot of mistakes. From mistranslating the Japanese particle "o" as "wo" through the entire book, to incorrect answer keys, to numerous typos. They also use the annoying "double" method for writing long vowels, as in "paati" and "shoojiki", instead of the more logical and accurate Hepburn system with lines over the vowels to show that they're long. All the errors make me wonder sometimes if they got the grammar wrong anywhere as well. So I still recommend the book, but just, um, nervously.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea, so-so execution
Review: When I first found this book, I was so glad, because as far as I know, it's the only grammar-intensive self-study Japanese textbook on the market. Every other textbook on learning Japanese is either for total beginners with lots of "fun" tourist-oriented sidebars, or is designed for classroom use. Here, finally, I thought, was a book that simply laid out the basic rules of Japanese grammar in a compact and concise manner. Perfect.

Now having worked my way through much of the book, however, my enthusiasm has waned. I still love the concept, and it HAS been helpful, but it's got a lot of mistakes. From mistranslating the Japanese particle "o" as "wo" through the entire book, to incorrect answer keys, to numerous typos. They also use the annoying "double" method for writing long vowels, as in "paati" and "shoojiki", instead of the more logical and accurate Hepburn system with lines over the vowels to show that they're long. All the errors make me wonder sometimes if they got the grammar wrong anywhere as well. So I still recommend the book, but just, um, nervously.