AAPG Memoir 109 is designed as a practical guide for students and professionals to learn the fundamentals of microscopic examination of sandstones, mudrocks, and associated rocks. With more than 1100 color illustrations, it covers the identification of grains, textures, and structures of clastic terrigenous rocks as well as their diagenetic alteration (compaction, cementation, dissolution, and replacement) and porosity reduction or enhancement. It also provides classification diagrams for formal description of those rocks and their porosity. Although the majority of the outcrop and subsurface examples come from the United States (35 states and Puerto Rico), there are representative photographs from 32 other countries, including many from the offshore areas. The foldout birefringence chart and an included DVD with Powerpoint files of all of the petrographic images provide additional aids for instructors and students.