AvatarDJFlux: I would like to share with you my personal approach to Joseki's. Much of what you'll find below has already been said in other pages, while some related concepts can also be found in another blurb of mine, but, as there seems to be no end to people asking for the ultimate Joseki dictionary, I'll happily stress some concepts.
Once upon a time, a great Zen Master was asked to tell his experiences on the path to enlightenment. He said:
"When I was young and I didn't know what Zen was, the mountains were mountains, rivers were rivers and clouds clouds. Then I started to practice Zen, and after some time of studying the mountains weren't mountains any more, rivers were not rivers, and the clouds were not clouds."
"Now that I am enlightened mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers and clouds clouds."
So it goes with Joseki's. When you start to play Go you have no idea of what a Joseki is. You play freely in the corners. Not knowing anything, you play moves that you like, relying on the little you know, on your still limited ability to read ahead, on what you want to do and how to reach your goal. Very often you get crushed.
Disappointed, you start studying, and discover that there are set corner sequences called Joseki which are said to give equal result. Set sequences??!? If they are set they can be studied and memorised!!! Such an approach appeals very much to the rational western mind: categorise, memorise and fish the right one out when you need a specific something.
So you go and seek the ultimate Joseki repository, hoping to find a way to have a perfect joseki for all seasons.
Pity that:
So hopefully after some struggle you will understand that Joseki's are not that important after all, at least until you reach, say, 3 dan amateur (see below).
If you think that Go is about fighting power and tactical combat, think twice, or else move to chess (no offence intended, chess is a thoroughly enjoyable intellectual game). Of course fighting power is important, and what happens in internet Go and in the fashionable styles prevailing in the international pro arena stand there to demonstrate it, but I happen to believe that Go is more than mere tactics and more than an intellectual game.
In the end you may realise that we should play having in mind a strategic goal and that we should play freely in the corners to reach that goal, relying on our ability to read ahead. I believe that we should play moves that we like, a style we enjoy. I also believe that we shouldn't mind losing a lot, provided we learn something. The circle has been closed, but we are more aware.
If you'd like to hear some advice from a 50-year old player, the weakest of the 2k, do the following:
If you do that proficiently, you may find yourself a 3 dan. Only then is it about time to start a serious study of joseki: now you may have the needed tools to understand what it is that pro's call Joseki.
Again, not to memorise a thousand variations, but to be able to adapt your corner play to your strategic plan!
DJ: Before someone fields the obvious objection, yes, yes, I am not a 3 dan...
What to do, I do not practice what I preach, I am just too lazy... :-)