Reddit mentions of Kodansha's Communicative English-Japanese Dictionary

For books or series we should all know about, I have some personal recommendations although as said before it depends heavily on your needs as a learner.
These are:

Dictionaries

• Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary
  Excellent bilingual dictionary with furigana throughout.
  
  
• Kodansha's Communicative English-Japanese Dictionary
  Likely one of the best En-Jp dictionaries that's also very easy to carry and use.
  
  Grammar
  
  
• どんなときどう使う 日本語表現文型辞典
  Essential Japanese Expression Dictionary: A Guide to Correct Usage of Key Sentence Patterns
  Contains various fundamental and common grammar patterns from N5 to N1. Translations in English, Chinese and Korean also.
  
  
• Kodansha's (formerly named) Power Japanese series
  Various useful supplimentary volumes such as All about particles, Basic Connections, Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication, Common Japanese Collocations etc.
  Mainly aimed at beginner/intermediate but contains gems that can be used well into advanced study.
  
  
• Japanese A Comprehensive Grammar
  
  Kanji
  
  
• Kanji in Context
  Textbook that contains all the Jōyō (common use) Kanji, in natural sentences and commonly used vocab, not isolated. Aimed at intermediate level upwards although does start from basic Kanji.
  
  
• Basic Kanji Book
  Kanji book series that takes you from absolute beginner. Memorable kanji illustrations and etymology.
  
  
• The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji
  A much more 'academic' kanji guide with detailed etymologies, kanji history as well as coherent pneumonics to remember them.
  
  Textbooks
  
  
• みんなの日本語 Minna no Nihongo
  
  
• Japanese for Everyone
  
  
• Genki
  
  
• Japanese for Busy People
  
  
• 学ぼう！にほんご Manabo Nihongo
  
  
• ニューアプローチ 日本語 New Approach Japanese
  
  
• An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese
  
  In terms of buying textbooks, I've had good luck with http://www.gettextbooks.com/ which pools many sites to find the cheapest deal.