Alright, I have read all the reviews that precede mine and many of them mention the book's one major deficiency -- it has too many typos. Just one example: on page 145, the word "descubrir" ("to discover") is introduced for the first time, appearing there in the main vocabulary list of new words for Chapter 9, and it is misspelled "descrubrir", which is inexcusable. I suspected the misspelling but was not sure until I checked my dictionary and also saw the word spelled correctly in the exercises that followed. This sort of thing is unfortunate in an otherwise fine text.
That said, this book is excellent. I am learning Spanish using this book as my main text. I started studying Spanish using this book in November 2002 and have completed fourteen of its fifteen chapters. It's now the beginning of March 2003 and I am reading the news online in Spanish with almost total comprehension. I had no prior experience with Spanish.
"Practical Spanish Grammar" has many exercises in each chapter covering both vocabulary and grammar and also three major "quizzes" of a hundred questions each covering Chapters 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15. The answers to all exercises and quizzes are given in the back of the book. In my opinion, Professor Prado has done a great job of giving me just what I need (and no more or less) to master new words and new grammatical concepts. The material is presented in a manner that fixes those concepts in my head and reinforces them with the exercises that follow.
When I finish this book, I will start going through Prado's "Advanced Spanish Grammar", which recapitulates and elaborates in more depth upon almost everything presented in "Practical Spanish Grammar" and introduces new concepts besides. Plus, "Advanced Spanish Grammar" is written ENTIRELY in Spanish and, looking ahead, I have found that I already understand it.
Now, there is one more thing: if, like me, you are trying to teach yourself Spanish on your own, you will need more than this book alone. I have purchased a few bilingual books that have texts of Spanish stories on one page and the English translation on the facing page. I don't need to be constantly referring to my dictionary when I read Spanish this way, since the translation is on the facing page. It has been the combination of Prado's "Practical Spanish Grammar" with these bilingual "story books" that have helped me to make so much progress in such a short time, especially with idiomatic expressions and other vocabulary material not found in Prado's book.
Angel Flores' "First Spanish Reader" is the best place to start with these bilingual stories because it's very much designed for the beginner (although many of the stories are real sleepers). Her "Spanish Stories" book seems to be the follow-up; the Spanish is much more advanced and the stories much more interesting. Both of Flores' books have excellent glossaries. John King edited "New Penguin Parallel Texts: Short Stories in Spanish", whose stories are more contemporary in theme and idiom.
And finally, there is a lot of Spanish to be read online for free. You can read a bilingual newspaper (containing English and Spanish side-by-side) ... ("Dos Mundos" bilingual newspaper out of Kansas City).
I don't know Prado and I am not trying to sell anyone's books. I just know that, to my surprise, this approach is working for me and "Practical Spanish Grammar" has been the fulcrum for my efforts. I recommend it highly.
A proposito, in my opinion the paperback version of "The New World Spanish/English English/Spanish Dictionary" is easiest on the eyes and easiest to handle of the dictionaries I have used or examined. Buen viaje!
