The 7 Best Golden Guides (2023 reviews)

We consider a golden guide to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your purposes from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: National Audubon Society Golden Guide READ REVIEW

Best For beginner: Buy: HERBERT W Levi Golden Guide READ REVIEW

Best For quick Identification: Buy: Sarah Whittley Golden Guide READ REVIEW

Best Field Guide: Buy: R Tucker Abbott Golden Guide READ REVIEW

Best For middle school student: Buy: Showler Golden Guide READ REVIEW

Best For Identification: Buy: Andrea Gibson Golden Guide READ REVIEW

Best For common fishes: Buy: HERBERT Spencer Zim Golden Guide READ REVIEW

Best Overall: National Audubon Society Golden Guide

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If you want nothing short of the optimal guide for your regular usage, this national audubon society golden guide is certainly a wise investment. This book by Gary Lincoff is a must have for every mushroom hunter who wants to identify species for any reason. It has a good visual key to get you started in the right direction, then there are photos and detailed descriptions for each to narrow down the search. It is easy to see if it’s the correct plant bird or mushroom or tree. It is listed as paperback but it has a plastic cover that is perfect for outdoor use.

The categories make it so much easier to find the fungi you are looking for. It has a section addressing poisonous mushrooms and another on edible mushrooms as well as a pore print chart which is invaluable. The guide makes a decent reference in the absence of a cell signal, but a smart phone would be a better tool for foraging. The pictures are so clear it is as if you are looking at each plant in the field.

• Better for carrying around while out looking
• Great pictures and makes it easy to identify
• Great pictures for clear identification in the field
• Beautiful photos, relevant information, and logical layout

Best For beginner: HERBERT W Levi Golden Guide

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If you often find yourself scrambling for convenient and suitable guide, herbert w levi golden guide is your end point. It is a great book for anyone with an interest in spiders. It is great for the naturalist or parents of inquisitive children. In the front it gives a great visual on how the Arthropod group is broken out and how different spider types break out within that group. You can use it to identify several spider species in your backyard, home, or other locations.

This can only scrath the surface but is a really good place to start. The illustrations, mostly paintings and drawing, are very good. It is guaranteed to make your skin crawl. It would work best for someone just starting out (as a field guide) as it cannot possibly cover all the spiders.

• Pocket sized so you can carry it with you in your travels
• Great illustrations are included and brief information about each creature
• Wonderful little books for gaining basic knowledge on specific fields of interest
• Gives lots of photos and is small enough to carry with you

Best For quick Identification: Sarah Whittley Golden Guide

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Best part: sarah whittley golden guide costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. It has two tiny bones that are once hind limbs protruding on either side of the body. It can be used by many fast-moving, active snakes, and the lure, where a snake waves the tip of its tail to entice animals to within striking distance. It has teeth in the lower jaw and non in their rigid upper jaw. It will writhe and wiggle its tail to focus attention here instead of on the head. It can also pick up the smallest temperature change. It is great for quick identification. It is made up of many delicate bones, which can be easily damaged. It is good for quick identification.

• Come in a variety of shapes, from round to horizontal
• Good brand reputation

Best Field Guide: R Tucker Abbott Golden Guide

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R Tucker Abbott offers a variety of guide for personal choice and yet maintaining quality in all the variants. A MUCH more advanced field guide from the Golden First Guides, this lists over 600 shells in all and will quickly identify any strange seashell you happen to find beachcombing. Whether for a valuable collection at home, or a sight while swimming or scuba diving, this will prove very reliable in the field. It is a complete education on shells in a small and convenient package.

Most of the colored drawings are really quite good in terms of how well they illustrate the species. This is a great starter book for shell identification. The drawings are very realistic and detailed, which will make it much easier to identify shells. This is a great guide for shell identification.

• Drawings are accurate and well done
• Very informative and not too hard to follow
• New and hot release

Best For middle school student: Showler Golden Guide

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Showler offers a variety of guide for personal choice and yet maintaining quality in all the variants. This book would be great for the middle school student working on a frog project. It includes frogs and toads from around the world. It is a great guide to frogs and toads for the young reader. It is not a 'field guide' for specific species identification, it is more of an overview on all global frog families. It is a good size to fit in your pocket. It is a great addition to any animal lovers library.

• Gorgeous illustrations and nice pocketable size
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best For Identification: Andrea Gibson Golden Guide

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Best part: andrea gibson golden guide costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. It makes quick ID of a plant, reptile, star, or shark very easy with a few quick paragraphs and picture. It comes with the detailed description and colorful illustrations, you will be able to tell your mako shark bite from your tiger shark bite.

• Delivers what they promise
• Good investment for long term

Best For common fishes: HERBERT Spencer Zim Golden Guide

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Herbert Spencer Zim makes beautiful and great guide with classic and smartly choosen materials. It's still great for the common fishes encountered by an average person. This is a cool book with amazing illustrations of many different fish species. This is a great book for kids with good pictures and easy-to-read short text underneath each item.

• Good investment for long term
• Lot of satisfied buyers