hello stone-lotus, danieljuk, lovely lotus and all you other wonderful friends of crystals
I have been collecting crystal guidebooks for just about as long as I've been collecting crystals themselves, because I love understanding all that i can about them, and now, as they keep discovering more and more 'new' crystals, there's no way i can stop!!!
I'm embarrassed thinking about how many crystals and books I have living with me, and Native American style flutes, too, but in my defence I'd note that I don't drink, smoke, buy expensive clothes or perfumes etc
Truly, people have mentioned some wonderful books... first up, i'd make a comment about Melody's Love is in the Earth. I was a huge fan of Melody's when her paperback, text only, Love is in the Earth came out. Mine is well-thumbed, and I owe Melody thanks for my initial understanding of some stones. Sadly, I was very keen on the idea of a Melody book that included her text and a whole bunch of coloured photos as well. My enthusiasm was so apparent that my beautiful daughter bought it for me, at huge expense, and I tried so hard but couldn't mask my disappointment. Compared to Judy Hall and Cassandra Eason's photos, Melody's are, IMHO, absolutely lacklustre, and not useful in identifying the crystals! I am angry about that. It is a huge, expensive book, and very little effort went into sourcing good photos, and to make matters worse, Melody has chosen to use different coloured pastel as well as black and white backgrounds against which to mount the photos, which makes the whole experience really unpleasant! I haven't opened that book since the first week I've had it, when I tried really hard to overlook its faults..it's just a really ugly book!
Poles apart from melody's effort is a truly brilliant little book by Michael Gienger, titled "Healing crystals, the A-Z guide to 555 gemstones". It is only a little larger than a LWB from your tarot decks, as close to pocket-sized as possible, but has clear photos of 555 gemstones (seriously!!!) and a few keywords for SP spiritual, S soul, or subconscious, M, mind or mental and B, body, or physical, aspects. he explains these in the book. For such a compact, go to, alphabetically-arranged little book this one is an absolute star! I've bought two copies as it is also inexpensive!
You can't go past Judy Hall for more sturdy books. I've bought Crystal Bibles 1 & 2, then another of hers titled "New Crystals" which was a stop gap, but I have Crystal Bible 3 in the mail as we speak. I also have her "Crystal Prescriptions" (just got the updated volume 2). This is an amazingly useful resource... I don't always refer to it, as i like to use intuitive process when feeling out the right crystal to gift someone in need, but obviously its well-used enough to warrant buying the updated version. I would love her new Encyclopaedia of crystals, and her
power crystals, but that would just be silly, as all of that info would be in the other books... :-O
After years of not buying Cassandra Eason's encyclopaedia, just because i had so many books already, I found her "The New Crystal Bible" (I thought that was a bit cheeky...
), and it is also great... She does offer a lot of info re each crystal , including affirmations, and candle colour/scent associations, etc... plus, it's organised by colour, which makes it a great cross-reference text to the alphabetical ones
I have others hiding in the bookshelf which are cool, but these ones are the most useful as general reference books.
Best wishes with your search, stone-lotus. please do bear in mind what i said about melody's latest effort "Love is in the Earth - The Last Testament"!!!! I don't mean to belittle her efforts after enjoying her original book for so many years, but you could buy most of the other books I've mentioned as a bundle for the cost of that one!!!