Do you know what your dreams mean?

ya its a good idea to get more than one book. I have 3 books on dreaming itself then have 2 on just symbolism. some are just like dime store astrology- stuff that has been written over and over for so long that you wonder where ther info came from in the first place.
but learning about different stages of sleep and the psychology of dreaming itself and stuff like lucid dreaming will give you a lot more insight if you're into understanding more than just cracking the code of "oh there was a snake in my dream so a new beginning is coming..." I think thats kind of silly. I think its more like what do snakes mean to you? have they ever played a roll in your life? do you have fear surrounding them etc?
dreams (bad dreams I call them because i reserve the term nightmare for when things are scary) like having sex with a relative- tell me that something or someone is being inappropriate intimate with me or someone/thing that I care about.

I put no stock whatsoever in books that tell you what dreams mean. I do believe that some (not all or even most) dreams have deeper meaning, but that the symbols in them are likely never going to be precisely the same for everyone.

For example, any book I've checked has told me that wolves are either downright bad or ambiguous, yet to me they are a very positive symbol and appear almost exclusively in helpful roles in my dreams. There's no way to document what every figure in a dream will mean for every person.

If you feel there's meaning, I think it's just something you need to sit down and think about very carefully on your own. And don't fret about every last thing you saw. Odds are, a lot of it was random or triggered by things you saw or thought about while awake.

I research my dreams every once in awhile.

I remember coming across one dream analysis book that said to dream of "negroes" meant there was danger and fear. *facepalm* It was written in the 1950's. Though it may be an interesting take on a culture's attitudes translating into dreams, I haven't taken anything written in a book about dreams seriously since then, unless it's about how to dream.

I usually have to talk mine out before I can understand what's going on in my dreams as they relate to my waking life. Although some do speak for themselves. When I'm highly stressed and on the verge of a meltdown, I dream that my teeth fall out - it was a regular dream during my marriage. Finally got rid of him and got some control over my life, and I haven't had those dreams since.