Salvete Omnes!
As I have had some free time during Saturnalia this year, I remarked that is was exactly five years ago that I started to self study latin. My wife gave me The Oxford Lattin Course book series as a gift after hearing me say that I wanted to learn Latin. I searched the fora and didn't find any reference to the course so I thought I would do a little review.
The Oxford Latin Course by Maurice Balmwood and James Morwood (Oxford University Press) is a four part book course that is ideal for a set your own pace, self-study method to learn latin. All of the grammar and essential vocabulary is included in the first three parts. The fourth part is a "reader" with extracts from several notable classical Latin authors.
The theme of the course follows the life of Horace as a child of a freedman in Venusia, to studying in Rome and Athens, to his life as a poet. Although a good deal of it is fictious a good portion is also based on actual events from his life. The theme makes for a good foundation to keep the reader interested and engaged.
Each book is made up of 12-16 chapters or so an each chapter nicely introduces 20-30 new vocabulary words and 2-3 grammatical concepts. There is also 2-3 managebale sizes readings per chapter as well a questions and answers. Finally each chapter also contains a short piece of Roman or Greek history or culture.
At the back if each book is a grammar review for each chapter with explanations of the grammar and more questions and answers. The back of the book also includes a vocabulary list of all of the words covered so far in the course as well a grammar reference section. Each part concludes with a long reading that begins to introcude concepts and vocabulary for the next book.
I own the full color second edition in paperback. Teacher's books are also available that contain the answers for each chapter's questions and more in depth grammar explanations.
There are several websites that have additional readings and drills to accompany the books (I've ncluded a couple links below).
Internet Workbook for the Oxford Latin Course
Oxford Latin Course Resources
The only disadvantage I found from this course was although it gave me a good reading knowledge of Latin, I find my ability to form sentences and speak to be not as strong. This may be more indicative of self-study courses in general though and not just this course.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a fairly economic and well-structured self-study latin course, I highly recommend it. If you have any questions about the course I would be happy to discuss.
-Severus