I am sure there are hundreds of these kinds of book, but having one on your bookshell is actually very handy. This book of Tresidder isn’t very large or thick, but it does cover a whole range of symbols that come from religions, mythology, literature and art. The best part of this book is the index, but for some reason this index isn’t exhaustive… Still you can find a lot of symbols here, with quite clear (and if needed lengthy) explanations to fresh up your memory or to have a peek when you are not familiar with a certain symbol.
Of course there are always things that you don’t find a this book, but I think it would take an encyclopedia to be able to explain the largest parts of the symbols used.
Still this is very handy -as said- and you can use this book to look up symbols from the east, the west, afrika, native America, Egypt, Sumeria, etc., etc.