Elementary German , by Erika Meyer and Guenther Bicknese. Finished reading May, 1998
This was one of my textbooks for German in college where I took five semesters of it. It wasn't a requirement, in fact my advisor strongly discouraged me not to 'waste time' like this, but I wanted to take it and eventually did. It didn't count at all, though, towards either my bachelors or masters degree. But I was able to read German newspapers by the end of it so it wasn't wasted.
I'ld like to be able to do that again: be able to read german language newspapers, that is. So I've started by reviewing my old german texts, this being the first one. It covers exactly what it says it will cover: the elements of the german language. So I got an introduction to hard/weak verbs, verb conjugations (present, past, future, subjunctive and passive), german cases for nouns, classes for nouns (determined by how the noun forms its plural), pronounds, prepositions, and adjectives and adverbs. Plus I got a review of about 2000 vocabulary words. That's not good enough, but it is a good start.
I've also got german vocabulary tapes I listen to in my car as I drive to and from work. They're pretty handy as well. But I like this book.
But my main reasons for wanting to practice German are the following: 1) being able to read some interesting literature in its original language and 2) to finish something I started before going on to the next thing.
Reference point 2, I'm learning Chinese right now and I don't want to go all out on that until my German meets and exceeds my previous abilities.
