Simon & Schuster's Guide to Rocks & Minerals Paperback – November 15, 1978

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Rocks & Minerals is a beautifully illustrated, user-friendly field guide that stands out for its visual appeal and comprehensive content. With over 1,000 illustrations—600 in full color—this book makes rock and mineral identification both accessible and engaging.Divided into separate sections for rocks and minerals, the guide covers a wide range of essential topics, from formation and classification to rarity and mode of occurrence. Each entry is supported by vivid photographs and helpful symbols, making it ideal for collectors, students, and curious amateurs alike.Its straightforward layout and practical information make it a fantastic reference whether you're just getting started or expanding your geological knowledge.

Love this series of reference books. Has full color pages and quality information. Nice to see cut and uncut gems for better identification.

I bought this book on a recommendation from a geology professor. There are other good books, but a strong advantage to this book is how the photo of a rock or mineral is directly adjacent to the written description. That’s not the case with some other popular rock and mineral guides. The photos in this sometimes look like they were taken before digital cameras, being somewhat less than super sharp and in dark colors, so it’s not perfect, but as a small, relatively inexpensive but inclusive field guide it’s easy to use. Repeated exposure to names, descriptions and photos in a very accessible guide book really does help me memorize unfamiliar rocks or minerals. I keep the book on hand, and I’m enough of a nerd to enjoy plain old browsing through the large number of listings. Recommend.

This was the perfect book for my crystal class.

This guide has a few more minerals than my favorite, "The National Audubon Society's Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals," but it's organization is not as good. The main thing that this book has that the Audubon guide does not is information on optical data. If you are going to be looking at samples under a microscope in thin section, then you probably need this book, too. If you are not going to be using a microscope, get the Audubon Guide.National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals (National Audubon Society Field Guides)

The book is chock full of information but much of the introductory material seems to assume some knowledge of the field.If you are already involved in rocks and minerals, it is very good.It is not a “key” in the sense you can look at some specimen and the guide will take you through the steps needed to identify it.

An excellent, easily transportable field guide with plenty of photos, this used book arrived in virtually like-new condition. While the explication of Miller Indices was somewhat rarefied and outdated, the volume is recommended for all serious rockhounds and amateur geologists.

Easy to use. Lots of information. I bought this because a geologist recommended it as a good choice, and I have to agree.