Help a beginner pick a grammar book, please.

This is my first time giving advice, but I'll do my best. (I've been studying Japanese on and off for almost two years just to give you an idea of how long I've been studying.)

Personally, I started learning Japanese with Tae Kim and I found that Tae Kim was excellent at introducing a lot of core basics relatively quickly. Things like verb conjugations, common particles, polite verb forms, etc. But, I eventually quit after looking around for new grammar resources that I liked better. The style that the grammar is taught in is much more natural than something like Genki which I think is a huge plus as well.

First issue I experienced early on was that, every time I wanted to express a certain thing or look up a grammar point I had never seen before, it was incredibly annoying to try to find it in Tae Kim. To be honest it's actually missing a lot. Not to discredit it, but it is.

Second issue I had with Tae Kim: while it was very good at introducing the basics, I found myself confused with grammar points in the wild even though I had already studied them. It introduces you very well, but as you grow as a learner, you'll find that grammar points, especially, particles, are used in more ways than one.

Now here's my advice for DOBJG,

I DON'T RECOMMEND STUDYING DOBJG AS A TEXTBOOK FOR GRAMMAR... BUT... I highly recommend going through all the core particles again because the way DOBJG explains each of them and how they could be used differently. It's good to get solid foundation on points that are so common.

Like I said above, I don't think you should use it as a grammar textbook, but it is an amazing supplement to any grammar that you're learning and a great reference material.

Read through it in your spare time often. Don't read random points either, read points you've already learned elsewhere and go in depth with the ones you feel that you're weak in, if you have none that you're weak in, just read any of the ones you've already learned. It gives you the english equivalents, how to use explanations, a lot of explanations for the grammar point itself, and adequate examples sentences for each point.

Have it on hand for when you're studying native materials and look stuff up as you go. Don't feel bad for having to look something up twice, if something comes up again, it's probably important and it's better to learn the point thoroughly anyways.

Other textbooks:

My experience with Genki I: I think Genki I is a very good introduction to Japanese, but I already learned almost all the vocab and grammar points in it when I got my copy so it was basically a waste for me.

Genki II: I have the textbook, but I've only skimmed through it. I see vocab that I could pick up, but I've already learned a lot of the grammar points.

Basically, if you've been studying for awhile already, you could opt on skipping Genki.

Kanzen Master Red Book: I don't recommend this book unless you don't mind example sentences not having translations. It's written mainly in Japanese and the rest of the series is completely in Japanese. There are a lot of points that I already know in this book as well, but only through reading/listening to native material and I probably need to review over a lot of them/learn how to use them.

It has the english equivalents or explanations, usage explanations, and is written almost entirely in Japanese. The explanations are brief, but DOBJG is a great supplement.

*I would like to note that, it has to be the old 3kyuu kanzen red book, the new kanzen master JLPT books are much more complicated and difficult to go through especially if you're a beginner. As the name implies they are much more focused on prepping for the JLPT as well.

Web:

Imabi: I don't really like it that much, it's very indepth... in a way that I don't understand... so I personally like learning stuff elsewhere and then supplementing with the ADOJG series instead. A lot of people have said great things about it though, so you should take a look.

Renshuu: Renshuu has a lot of grammar points and user-made examples. I actually like going through grammar points here.

Jgram: Same as renshuu, but the website isn't as clean.

Other resources:

4chan's DJT resources are actually pretty amazing.

Google (Not a joke, helps a lot)

Advice:

*When you can't find something or you don't understand something, finding explanations via forums works too. If you had issues finding it, someone else probably has too.

*People on Lang-8 are usually nice enough to explain stuff for you. Having a native friend also really helps if you want to ask questions. Or can't find something.

*If you can't find something move on and maybe you'll see it again in a sentence where it isn't as ambiguous.

*Ask questions on forums or reddit (I don't do this, but I should)

My approach to grammar isn't very structured at all, I like having as many resources as possible just incase one source doesn't explain something well or have a point I'm looking for at all.

/r/LearnJapanese Thread