I bought the level 1 book, and I'll send a picture when I come across my USB cable again. I went to the store to take a look at the book, and I was surprised to see that I actually knew a fair bit of the grammar. To me that was a good thing, because I had heard a lot of the level 1 grammar was all kind of weird/not used very often.
I'm still not done with the level 2 book, but I find it pretty useful. I know almost zero grammar rules in Japanese, but the book seems to have a perfect number of examples. It's enough examples to be able to recognize it in the wild later, but small enough that I can casually un-suspend a few sections here and there.
Hopefully level 1 will be just as good! It seems funny studying from a JLPT book, without the intent to take the test, but the kanzen master books have been the only textbooks I've actually liked so far.
Have the level 1/2 books helped other people, JLPT or not?