みんなの日本語初級I本冊

Great book to get started

I think みんなの日本語 has a great structure and requires you to use ひらがな and かたかな right from the start, which I think is the best way to learn, so you get used to it right away. Also the grammar-book has great explanations for all the grammar-points. Things that I wish this book would do:

• Cover pitch accent
• More listening exercises
• Not teach conjugation based on the ます form of verbs, but the dictionary form
• Combine more learned grammar in exercises to force you to write more complex sentences
• Conversations and texts could be less stiff and more natural

There also exist additional exercise-books that you can buy and a short novel-series about ミラーさん which is great reading material after you finished each book, since it is written for exactly that level and you will be able to understand almost everything right away.