hailthorn011 wrote: ...I've been reading this Joseki Dictionary I have. It seems informative, but I'm not sure I really understand a good portion of it yet.
Ah ha! The reason you're losing
. Seriously though, studying tesuji and life & death problems will by
far help you improve the most right now. I suspect you can reach dan level without studying fuseki or joseki at all, but at some point it is helpful. That said, learning joseki can teach you other things (e.g. good shape, efficiency), so it isn't a bad idea. Just at your level it will do almost nothing compared to tesuji and life & death.
For the opening, at most right now you could read Opening Theory Made Easy, or In the Beginning. Later, if you really want to study joseki, 38 Basic Joseki is a good introduction, and it teaches good concepts.
As others have suggested, if you just have fun studying joseki, by all means do so. You should be having fun.
My book recommendations for you:
Graded Go Problems for Beginners Volume II Get Strong at Tesuji - The problems are ranked 1-3 stars. Try the 1-star problems.
Tesuji by James Davies - Honestly, you will find this book too hard, but reading it will help you improve. Just read the text and the examples, but don't do the problem sets yet; save them for later. If you think it will just discourage you, then save this until you're 8 kyu. It will still be hard.