The books listed at the bottom of this page can be purchased from Ingram Spark or from Amazon using the links on our How to Read Japanese page. The books from Ingram Spark are generally somewhat lighter and thinner.

When you are ready for serious reading practice, and if you are reasonably comfortable dealing with the frustrations that are inherent in computers, we encourage you to use the four Japanese Readers, the Core Kanji Catalogue and the Glossary on a computer screen. This computer-based option requires PDF files which can be purchased at this link. See Efficient Japanese Reading Practice on a Computer to learn more.

We recommend a somewhat different approach for our Kanji Memorization Drills. At the beginning, at least, please consider using those books with a pen and an eraser tool, marking kanji that you are initially unable to identify with dots in the margins and later erasing those dots. You can download a file containing detailed instructions for using the Drills at this link: Memorization Drills Sample 2026-04-23. After you are reasonably familiar with the kanji, you may prefer to forgo the pen and simply review one page at a time, repeating the drills until you get correct results for all of the kanji on a given page before moving on to the next page.

In other words, if you purchase the Drills in PDF format only and intend to use the pen and eraser tool technique as you study, it’s probably best to print them and staple the sheets together. If that is not convenient, please consider buying the Drills in printed book format instead, either from Amazon or from Ingram Spark, using the links on the How to Read Japanese page.

Some students purchase both printed and PDF versions of the books, including the Memorization Drills. They may use printed books when they want a more relaxed study experience and PDF documents for reading practice on a computer, or for kanji searches. I have found the PDF version of the fourth (the most complete) Memorization Drills to be very helpful when I encounter a challenging kanji character during my reading and want to examine the differences between that character and other similar kanji. A search of the Drills for the kanji in question, or for its reference number, usually takes me to a page containing multiple kanji that closely resemble each other, allowing me to compare them side by side.

We offer a 50% discount for students who have already purchased a print version of any of the books, when they purchase the same book in PDF format. Please visit the PDF store for more details.

Books in the Learn to Read in Japanese series

1. Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume I. Published in 2016, it teaches 608 target kanji and includes a kanji catalogue, plus 4,200 reading practice sentences.
2. Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume II. Published in 2018, it teaches 600 additional target kanji, with an expanded kanji catalogue. It includes 2,900 vocabulary terms and 1,660 sentences for reading practice. It also suggests extensive supplemental reading material.
3. Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume III. Published in 2020, it teaches 320 more target kanji, with an expanded kanji catalogue. It includes 2,100 vocabulary terms and 912 sentences for reading practice. It also suggests extensive supplemental reading material.
4. Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume IV. Published in 2022, it teaches 560 more target kanji. Due to space limitations, it does not include a kanji catalogue, which is published separately (see Item # 5, below). It includes 3,800 vocabulary terms and 1,623 sentences for reading practice.
5. Core Kanji, a Catalogue of 2,088 Essential Kanji. Published in 2022 and expanded in 2024, it includes memorable kanji descriptions, retrieval cues for kanji readings and comparisons among similar characters, as well as an index to 4,300 kanji pronunciations. It also contains tools that can be used for identifying kanji, a technique known as Kanji ID.
6. Learn to Read in Japanese, a Glossary. Published in 2020 and expanded in 2022, it lists more than 9,700 Japanese vocabulary terms, with definitions, mnemonics and comparisons among terms.
7. Kanji Memorization Drills, Version One. Published in 2025, it contains drills for learning to recognize and pronounce 608 kanji. A supplement to Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume I.
8. Kanji Memorization Drills, Version Two. Published in 2025, it contains drills for learning to recognize and pronounce 1,208 kanji. A supplement to Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume II.
9. Kanji Memorization Drills, Version Three. Published in 2025, it contains drills for learning to recognize and pronounce 1,528 kanji. A supplement to Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume III.
10. Kanji Memorization Drills, Version Four. Published in 2025, it contains drills for learning to recognize and pronounce 2,088 kanji. A supplement to Learn to Read in Japanese, Volume IV.