I’m on Level 6 and based on information I’ve read here on the forums I will concentrate on WK vocabulary until I reach Level 10 and then I will start to explore my options for learning grammer. Does that mean I need to wait until after that to join one of the book clubs? Is there a general guide of which WK level you need to be on for the Absolute Beginner book club (and the other book clubs too I guess for future reference)?
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Whenever you want. 
Also, all of the book clubs, even the Absolute Beginner, are about being an absolute beginner at reading native material, not in the language itself, since even the simplest manga has grammar points that could be from N5 to N3. Or a lot of vocabulary that you don’t know yet, but that’s why the book clubs exist, so you can ask questions and look stuff up more easily since there are vocab sheets and people there. 
Btw, the next book club is in 2 days: チーズスイートホーム Home Thread (Absolute Beginner Book Club) - #137 by hinoshori
So you might want to take a look at the sample pages and see if it’s something that you would like to read, then join the book club and give it a go, or wait for the next one. 
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The advice to start grammar studies by level 10, not wait till then. It’s confusingly worded and counter productive. There is no good reason not to start learning grammar at the same time as your WK journey if not before
Start grammar studies now and join the absolute beginner book club as soon as the next new book comes around. It won’t all make sense but a lot of it will and people are very helpful and supportive here.
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What I did was just read the amazon.jp excerpt from a bunch of manga regularly, then as one of them actually became legible to a significant extent, I bought that one.
So that’s a pretty pragmatic answer to the question.
To me the graded readers were what allowed me to bridge the gap between sample sentences and actual native-targetted stories though.
To me there was… I actually started learning Japanese using Tae Kim, and simply found it too frustrating to try to learn the grammar points while understanding none of the words. (Tae Kim had a vocab list, but even having to refer back to that for each word of each sentence quickly became too frustrating for me).
My personal approach to grammar was to take it up when I started experiencing the opposite frustration: I often knew all the individual words but still couldn’t understand a certain sentence.
Though I mean, if you’re not like this then I guess the advice is counter-productive
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Tae Kim is a great reference but a poor learning resource.
I’d start with an app like LingoDeer or Human Japanese or a textbook like Genki. I think a combination of resources works best. Don’t get me wrong I use tae Kim all the time but it’s either to remind myself of something or to expand on a grammar point learnt elsewhere.
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Well, once I did learn grammar, it was through Tae Kim, combined with an Anki deck to drill the sample sentences… I found it very good actually 
Out of curiosity, what was it that you felt made it a poor learning resource? I felt his explanations were usually detailed and exemplified in such a way as to make me get it pretty easily.
Also out of curiosity, given that my issues was with the frustration of learning grammar while having to double-check the meaning of almost every word, how would you say that the resources you mention make that less of an issue?
Other than that, I guess it just goes to show that to each their own, horses for courses and all that
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There’s no easy way to practice what you’re learning from Tae Kim. I used Japanese From Zero at the beginning and it did a good job of teaching you grammar and vocab together, with (mostly) helpful exercises to reinforce what you’ve learned.
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Very much this. Tae Kim has no way of practicing what you are leaning. The other advantage of a text book, or other resources, if they build up vocabulary as you go through, usually with kana only or lots of furigana.
At the end of the day it’s what works for you. I didn’t choose my path, I’d already done a bunch of self study and some classes before I found wanikani. I’m pretty happy with my level 3 years into this journey; I can pick up a lot of manga or many Japanese websites and read them without too much difficulty. Now if only my speaking was better.
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