References

I'm finding this book to be the most helpful as I begin to sort out odonate ID.

(Considering that's a Wandering Glider on the cover, I wish I'd had it on hand when I was trying to ID that one a few weeks ago.)

Several key features make it stand out from the other books I have on hand: it includes both dragonflies and damselflies; it has photos and range maps for every species right with the description text for easy access; and perhaps most importantly it includes good descriptions of both the diagnostic features of each species AND the ways in which each species compares to their closest lookalikes. Having a list of comparison features, or even just comments like "no other species in x range will have y and z features" or "frustratingly similar to (these three other species) without examination of subgenital plates with a hand lens", has been absolutely invaluable.

The book at the top of the photo, "Dragonflies Through Binoculars" also has some good commentary on similar species, but the way it's set up is more cumbersome, it separates the text descriptions from the colour plates and range maps. I suppose if you wanted to flip through a set of photos really quickly to narrow down an ID, that setup would be useful, but it still leads to a lot of flipping back and forth and losing one's page. That books also does not include damselflies.

And finally, the little book at the bottom is the Stokes "Beginner's Guide To Dragonflies", which is exactly what is says on the tin. A good place to start and to look up really common stuff, but it obviously leaves out a lot of species and details.

iNaturalist records are going to be very helpful for practice, I think. I've already spent some time going through the odonates section, trying to confirm other people's IDs from the posted photos. At the very least, it'll get me familiar with the terminology and what features I need to be looking at for the various groups. And hopefully some of the more common or distinctive features will start sticking with me once I've seen them enough.