Beginning Japanese by Kluempler

This textbook is looking pretty cool.

OK, I don't know if it would be good for true beginners.  Chapter 1 and we're already seeing kanji.  But for practice reading, I am loving it.

I wonder why I never heard about this online?  My wife found it in the new books section at the library.  It's obviously a school textbook.  Maybe it's too new.  Maybe people think school textbooks are icky.

Looking forward to some reading practice that, I hope, won't have me running to the dictionary 3 times per sentence.

(Oh, and it's cheap, too:  $20 to Genki's $40 and JfZ!'s $30.