Reddit reviews Simon & Schuster's Guide to Rocks & Minerals

-1. Rock hammer

• Either get a pick type, if you go for hard rock hand samples,
  
  or a chisel type, if you want soft rocks and fossil beds.
  
  
• Either way if you have the $$ go Estwing, else whatever you can find at Home Depot.
  
  -2. Hand lens
  
  
• 10x is classic, sometimes 14x is nice for tricky mineral identification.
  
• LED lights are fun, but typically found on lower quality optics
  
• Best you can get? Bausch & Lomb Hastings Triplet 10x - $35. Probably can get something cheapo from China on Amazon for a few bucks.
  
  -3. Simon & Schuster's Guide to Rocks & Minerals Nuff said.
  
  -4. Got some cash to burn? A handheld GPS is pretty nifty.
  
  -5. Small bottle of hydrocloric acid. Can be handy for quick IDing of carbonates, but often not worth the hassle. Alternative: learn your mineralogy, bring a pocket knife.
  
  -6. Sharpies, pens, masking tape, and a field book. Keep notes! Label rocks so you can track your finds.
  
  -7. Camera!
  
  -8. Sample bags - anything tough but soft should do. Pros often use canvas.
  
  If you're feeling ambitious, raid your garden shed for anything good at moving earth. I've had a lot of luck recently with Estwing's prybars, chisels, and crack hammers with popping sediment beds out, but there's no need to go for name brands for these items. It's all about what you're going after...
  
  Happy hunting!

I'm a professional mineralogist and I have that book at my desk, It's a pretty helpful guide sometimes. I also recommend Simon & Schuster's Guide to Rocks & Minerals and Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals

http://www.amazon.com/Simon-Schusters-Guide-Rocks-Minerals/dp/0671244175/ref=zg_bs_290105_7

My favorite handbook. Some essential rockhound tools would be a rock hammer, chisel, hand loupe, etc.

Learned some basic rocks/minerals as a kid - Quartz, Calcite, Tigereye, Agate, Pyrite, Malachite, Azurite, Labradorite, Granite, Conglomerate, Sandstone, Obsidian, Pumice, Fluorite, etc. I'd find some in my yard and collect them and look them up in some books I had or see them for sale in gift shops and got to know them this way.

Learned some more when I took Mineralogy and Petrology courses throughout my degree.

Learned even more by lurking this sub, seeing examples, and googling more info about ones I don't know about.

Some good resources include Simon and Schusters Guide, NPS, Mindat, etc. and if you're really serious about learning more, MIT offers free open courseware on Intro Geology and Petrology.

These are the two favorites of the ones I have.
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Minerals-Gemstones-Walter-Schumann/dp/0395511372
http://www.amazon.com/Simon-Schusters-Guide-Rocks-Minerals/dp/0671244175

The end-all mineral book. Not ideal for field identification, but amazing for the information it does contain. It's the one reference book that I have kept around and used throughout my academic and professional career.