Good Spanish books and courses

[Tigranuhi-Tigranuhi]

Hi everybody,

I am going to learn Spanish and now I am searching for good books in English.
Google searching didn't help me.

I want something that start from the very beginning - alphabet, sounds and basic grammer, actually, a practical textbook with cd.

Can you please send me appropriate links, if you know such ones?

Each piece of advise and information is appreciated.

Thanks

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Check the "Prisma" series, by the publisher Edinumen. Each volume corresponds to a learning level, according to the European Union standards; A1 is the one for beginners. There is a version for Latin American Spanish called "Prisma Latinoamericano".
Also for Mexican Spanish, there is the series "Aula Latina"; they're also divided by EU levels.
Both series have two books for every level, textbook and workbook. Both can be found on Amazon.

There are many other books (and their reviews) you may find if you Google "Spanish as a foreign language books", but these are the ones I like better because they don't teach 'in English'; they immediately put you in touch with Spanish.

Little piece of advice: don't waste your money buying "501 Verbs in Spanish". This collection of verbs forces you to try and memorize, which is not very useful. A conjugation manual is very useful, so try something like "Conjugación Lengua Española" by Larousse; it will help you follow the logic for conjugating verbs in Spanish.

[Tigranuhi-Tigranuhi]

Thank you very much, Angelica

As for the "Prism" series, is it a good option, if I preffer textbooks for "standard Spanish", not Latin American Spanish or Mexican Spanish... ?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I don't know if there is such thing. These are separate courses because some grammar uses, pronunciation and a few pieces of vocabulary are generally different from one region to another. It doesn't mean that the Spanish learnt in one region is useless somewhere else: the general features of both regions are grouped for functional reasons.
Educated Spanish is understood everywhere, but both contexts are different; just like learning British English is not the same as learning American English or Australian English, and formal courses don't mix them.