Alpha Teach Yourself Spanish in 24 Hours

This has proved to be a good, efficient source for learning the Spanish Language. It's especially useful if you have another Romance Language under your belt. None of the lessons are too comprehensive/overwhelming and my edition at least has answers to the exercises. (The english in the book is indeed awful, but I didn't buy it for the english ) Be aware that you must have some source of the spoken language to complement this book. Even if it's just listening to a radio or watching football on Univision, you have to have a model for your pronunciation. Books that provide CD's usually cost a great deal more than this, so the lack of sound is not a great handicap. I'm planning a trip to Spain in the spring of 2008 and this is my sole preparation. I'll let you know how it goes. Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and the wonderfully structured bang BANG: A Novel

Even though I am just begining to work through the lessons, this book seems to be very well written. Full of helpful hints for those of us who need all the help we can get.

While misleading in title, since the processes of absorbing, understanding and remembering all of the information may not be possible in 24 hours, the book is invaluable as a grammar and usage reference. It also may be used as a review guide. The completeness of the scope of information is excellent, even though the volume is lacking. In a language course, the repetition of the drills facilitates the correct learning and, thus, the correct usage of the material. The drills could be more comprehensive and a bit more engaging as to subject matter.

I went through Pimsleur I and II. Then bought several books to learn the grammar. This book explained many things more clearly than other texts.

I have never written a review before, but the outstanding quality of this book compels me to put my enthusiasm into words. I find learning foreign languages very difficult because it is hard to try and cobble together the real overview of the language from the usual series of books and tapes. I always feel that I am coming in somewhere in the middle and that I am expected to intuit the rules and structure of the new language. I have often wondered why someone doesn't just lay it ALL out with full, logical and sequential explanations so that one can build a solid understanding of the new language BEFORE the author runs off into mythical dialogue and selective explanations? Well, this book is the language book of my dreams! A light has gone on!