“Rookledge’s classic international typefinder” is helpful,

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9781856694063/Rookledges_Classic_Inte...

and online these are useful (besides Typophile’s own id department):

http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

http://www.identifont.com/identify.html

http://bowfinprintworks.com
(oops, not working at the moment)

At the risk of self-promo, there is no more complete book than FontBook. The “see also” cross-references are particularly helpful for identification. If you know the name of a font that looks similar, you may find what you seek in the cross-reference. I use it daily.

I’ll second Stewf’s recommendation. Here’s a little write-up I did if you’re looking for some info. FontBook is a must-have if you’re serious about type and need a comprehensive reference.

American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century (Matt McGrew, Oak Knoll) is brilliant, because it shows complete alphabets and has a brief history of each face (designer, foundry, date, distinguishing features etc.) which helps you remember. Almost all the faces in it are available digitally, so it still has a lot of currency.

Thanks everyone for your help. I think i’m going to start off with getting “fontbook” and see where I go from there if I get anything else. I ended up finding an old adobe book of fonts at my current workplace “Derksen Printers, Steinbach” which helped me out for the moment, but FontBook will still be needed.

Thanks again,
Chris

Build up a collection of specimens.
Like the FontBook, Indie Fonts 1, 2, and 3, and Font Bureau, have hard-cover catalogs.
House Industries and H&F-J publish beautiful specimens, and Veer too.
Go to TypeCon and/or ATypI — there are lots of specimens in the goody bag, some of them very rare and beautiful, such as those by Adobe for Garamond Premier Pro.