I’m sure this question has been asked before, but what are the advantages and disadvantages of the different textbooks? Which would you guys recommend for me? I took two years of Spanish in high school (but didn’t retain any of it and was really bad at it), a semester of German which I seem to be ok at, and have an amateur knowledge of linguistics.
Since there are many, many textbooks, no one can really answer you satisfactoriamente. But…
I recommend Lingua Latina, by Hans Ørberg. It teaches you to read Latin from left to right and not to parse it. The obvious advantage is that you can start reading and enjoying Latin literature in a relatively short time. The disadvantage is that you may feel lost when trying to explain complex grammatical constructions. The way I see it, all the heavy grammar stuff should be left until after you can read and understand latin fluently.
So Lingua Latina + The Dowling Method is what I recommend, amice.
Cura ut valeas. 
Seems like a good book. I might get it some time if I get too frustrated by Ben L’Dooge’s book.
What I do not reccommend is to learn from the WikiBooks Latin tutorial. Although it is nice to understand some things, it skips other things. For example you are asked to translate Latin text not in your vocabulary, and at one point I believe they even asked you to use a case that you didn’t even know.
I just finished a three semester course on Lingua Latina in my university. Personally, I found it boring and repetitive, yet progressive enough that the beginner latin students in my class had tons of difficulty. I started studying Latin in high school using the Cambridge Latin Course and adored it. The stories were interesting, the grammar was well organised in a logical progression, and each chapter ended off with a section on Roman life which I loved. Lingua Latin, although good for an intermediate latin student, I thought was too hard for a out and out beginnner. However, that’s just my own opinion.
I also recommend Lingua Latina, but it’s best if you have a minimal base of vocab before you start.
It’s supposed to be repetitive; that is the Ørberg method for acquiring new vocabulary, since you are not given a translation.
I started studying Latin in high school using the Cambridge Latin Course and adored it. The stories were interesting, the grammar was well organised in a logical progression,
I never bought the Cambridge Course, but I did read some of the stories on-line. The problem, for me, is that the sentences or phrases are too short. It doesn’t “read” like latin, but more like English. And its latin vocabulary comes with translation, which I bitterly dislike.
Lingua Latin, although good for an intermediate latin student, I thought was too hard for a out and out beginnner.
This is the second time I’ve heard/read this opinion, and I’m beginning to wonder if it’s true. I myself started Lingua Latina after finishing Collar & Daniell, so I cannot say if LL is the best way to start, but I can say it is very logical in its progression and that a newbie ‘should’ be able to start off with it.
However, that’s just my own opinion.
The above is also just mea sententia. 
Vale!