I bought this book "Joey Yap's Pure Feng Shui", published in 2008 and of course the writer is the famous Feng Shui Master Mr. Joey Yap.
According to this book, the first and most important thing when determining feng shui of your house (note, about the house, not about your life 'gua'), is your Sitting (座) and Facing (向) ('zuo xiang'). Only when you get this right (must be accurate), then can you determine which room is good for what purposes, which room to avoid etc. But if you get this wrong, it will be disasterous as whatever follows is based on this Sitting and Facing of your house.
According to the book (only applicable to landed property),
1) "At the Facing of the building, stand in the center, with your back to the building or structure, looking out. Hold up your compass and wait for the needle to settle and steady at magnetic North."
2) "If the compass needle continually fluctuates and does not setlte in any one direction, then it is possible that hte door frame or the building is emanating a strong electromagnetic force that is disrupting the ability of the compass to orientate itself to the magnetic North. Take two steps forward or steps back - this will usually move you out of the magnetic field of metal door frames or any metal structures. Establish the direction from there."
3) "Discover the Facing direction of the building by looking up the compass reading on the chart opposite."
For example, my house is sitting at Southwest, facing Northeast (座西南,向东北). Sounds confusing?

You just have to read this book, it is in plain English and suitable for beginners. Unlike Lilian's book which places so much emphasis on buying the right object to be placed on the correct place, Joey's book focus on identifying which section of the house is good or bad, and resolves any 'problems' by placing simple objects like 'a glass of water', 'music box', etc...none of those crystal cave, mantra writings, camel, horse, etc.
Hope this help.