Customer Reviews

Rocks and Minerals: A Guide to Field Identification (Golden Field Guides)

5 star:		(1)
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3 star:		(1)
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This book was recommend for a class on mineral identification at my school for my major. I am an amateur rock identifier at best.

The drawings are hand-drawn but thats fine because important characteristics are exaggerated and useful. The information is solid, with classification information for the popular minerals and applicable background information. It is difficult to use this book to identify a mineral unless you already know the likely candidates. The minerals are arranged by mineral category, not by characteristics such as hardness, streak or density. An appendix with a matrix of popular minerals and their characteristics would be much easier to read and useful. My major gripe is the index (!) with too many references for each mineral. When looking for a rock, I have to go to the index first, flip through several pages with only a picture of a rock before I find the page with the actual description of it.

Maybe this book is not for amateurs like me. I wouldn't return it, but am seriously considering trying my luck on another handbook. It is still a good reference to have for my new hobby even though it was not useful for the class I got it for.

Very good book for rock and mineral hobby
collectors, amateur prospectors, beginers
and with some experience.

Also at a fair price.