Between these two methods, some people learn better one way (following a textbook), and other people learn better the other way (diving in and looking everything up). It can take some trial and error to see which works better for you.
The book club allows for an opportunity to do a combination of both. You’re diving right in, but you also have breakdowns and explanations of the material, sort of like having a very targeted textbook formed by the discussion. (Be sure to check the chapter one discussion thread if you haven’t already.)
For you specifically, being six months into learning Japanese, my recommendation would be the following:
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At least lightly follow the book club. Read through the week’s chapter(s) as best you can. Based on whatever amount of anime you’ve watched, you probably have at least a very vague idea of how words sound (such as vowel pronunciation). But a difficult part will be knowing where words begin and end.
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Read up on the basics of grammar. Various available resources are:
- A textbook such as Genki.
- Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide
- Cure Dolly’s Japanese from Scratch videos (has subtitles available)
Cure Dolly is my personal favorite of the various grammar guides I’ve tried. Videos are typically 10 to 15 minutes long. If you watched one per day, it would take only two weeks to go over most of the core necessities. It won’t all sink in right away (it takes time), but pretty much everything covered in the first ten videos, you’ll be seeing in the manga.
After maybe two weeks of reading along (as best you can) and (most importantly) reading the discussion threads, ask yourself: I’m I actually learning anything by following the book club? If you find you are learning bits and pieces along the way, it may be worth continuing along. If you’re not getting anything out of it, it could be worth holding off for a bit while you focus on grammar studies, then come back again.