Best Books?

[LegendsEnd]

I've pretty much got a 2-hour commute to and from work. I thought this might be a good chance to pickup some books and read. I've done my own research, and everyone on every site seems to recommend:

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/4 ... YIK6Y9EEQB

As the best Kanji dictionary. So I was looking for recommendations to reinforce grammar and vocabulary. Perhaps I will need another resource for more Kanji as well?

Most recommended grammar books I see are:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/478900 ... 4789004546
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/478900 ... 4789007758

For vocab this one seems interesting but reviews say it's a slim book, not much covered then?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... stawide-20

[Yudan Taiteki]

What are you planning to use other than dictionaries? (You were doing BKB in another thread; have you finished volumes 1 and 2 of that?)

Learner's Kanji Dictionary is a fine beginner dictionary, but it's not a textbook or something to just be read through.

[LegendsEnd]

I went through most of BKB 1, then started school again. Now I'm on a co-op work term at my university, so I've got free time. I don't think the bus rides work very well for writing pages of Kanji via BKB1/2, so I thought I'd start working on other aspects of the language.

I'm hoping I'd get a better grasp of grammar so I can express thoughts, and then get a vocab book to fill in the blanks when I can structure a sentence, but cannot find the word / suffixes.

[richvh]

I'd say that the Kodansha Kanji Learner's is a good beginner's dictionary, rather than the best kanji dictionary. Being a thick, slightly larger than mass market paperback book, it's easier to carry around than something more comprehensive like Nelson's or the New Nelson, and will have most kanji you'll encounter in newspapers or modern light novels or manga, and most of the more common compounds.

For grammar, I've heard good things about the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series.

For vocabulary, a good J-E dictionary (such as the Kenkyusha dictionary nicknamed the Green Goddess for the cover color) and something interesting to read on your commute. You don't want to read any of the dictionaries (BORING), you want to use them for reference as you read your interesting reading matter.