Books to teach yourself Russian?

[ksushis.livejournal.com]

Hi. I'm Russian, my boyfriend is American and I wanted to get him a decent book he can teach himself some Russian with. I know the book is not exactly ideal, but the other methods (classroom, tutors, etc) are not an option right now. Of course I can explain to him things her wouldn't understand from the book, but if should be a good book to start with.

I went to amazon.com and found lots of books and lots of reviews ranging from "this book was the best" to "this was useless" for the same product.  I was wondering if people here could help me choose a book by sharing their experiences.

I've found these books to be popular:

The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners - unfortunately this one doesn't have any CDs or tapes to listen to...

Teach Yourself Russian Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs)

Oxford Take Off in Russian: 4 CDs

This one people didn't like: Basic Russian: Learn to Speak and Understand Russian with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur)

Have anyone had experience with any of these books, or any other books when trying to teach themselves Russian?

Thanks a lot!

Comments

[punkndisorderli.livejournal.com]

I used both of those books... Nachalo and Golosa (yay hurricane Katrina?), and if I had to pick one, i prefered Golosa.