Reddit mentions of A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals (Peterson Field Guides)

I bought this and it was used A LOT during Min. It's pretty cheap and totally worth it!

Well, the way I learned how was by getting yelled at by our field instructor until we knew what we were doing...Something that has a reasonable way to look up cleavages, colour, hardness, and lustre is just about what you need. The DK one seems reasonable enough, beyond most of that information, it's just practice, practice, practice.

http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Minerals-Peterson-Guides/dp/039591096X < I thiiiink this may be the one we had, but I honestly don't remember. I kept my optical mineralogy text because it's also has good hand sample descriptions, but I think I sold my pretty field guide because I needed to buy next year's texts...

Since we usually got a preamble before any trip, we got pretty lazy and didn't need it that much. We were usually only differentiating between 4-5 minerals, it stayed in our bag most of the time. (Great students, I know. Fact is that if you can ID quartz, the feldspars, pyroxene, and amphibole, you're pretty well off. XD)

Obviously, as an enthusiast, you don't have the 'luxury' of an old furry man yelling at you, but the fact remains that books will only go so far, and you just need to practice seeing cleavage, lustre, and all that. Getting an eye takes time, but it's a lot of fun. :D