rp Female, 27. Los Altos, CA, USA

This book contains several excerpts from various classical texts, with detailed notes on grammar and vocabulary for each. The most useful aspect is that Shirane takes apart every word and particle and labels what they are: noun, verb, rentaikei, yodan izenkei, etc etc. The text also includes a thorough dictionary.
The main drawbacks for this text are that the excerpts are not of the highest quality; although the texts they are from are well renowned, the parts he chooses are fairly unremarkable. His dictionary is also inexplicably ordered in alphabetical order, and written in romaji. The vocabulary lists he includes with each piece are also somewhat haphazard; often he includes very easy vocabulary but neglects harder ones that I cannot easily find the definitions for.
However, if one has another source for a classical dictionary, this is a good resource, especially for learning the very specific parts of the grammar.

This is an extremely useful and practical book for those with an interest in learning classical Japanese. The concepts are explained clearly, and Komai and Rohlich provide many examples and problem sets for the student. There is a useful and thorough index of grammar structure and vocabulary in the back, which has been invaluable. This is not a textbook that one can just skim through, however; you must actually make an active effort to understand and do the work.
That said, there are two main drawbacks to this text: first, that there are no answers given for the problems, and second, that the examples provided are often created by the authors, and not drawn out of actual texts.
The first is an obvious problem. The second is less so. It is only a problem insofar as they are not good preparation for actually encountering the grammar forms in actual classical texts. This becomes very clear in the problem sets themselves, for these often use actual examples. These are the hardest to work out and understand. But with practice and dedication, these problems could be overcome.