Archaeology was the main subject of my degree, but I think the study of it is different here in the UK compared to the US... In the States, archaeology is more closely associated with anthropology, which I really don't know much about.
If you're going to study archaeology at an American institution, I reckon Louis Binford and Ian Hodder would be two names to look out for at the library. Bear in mind that there's a lot of theory involved, some of which is really dry and seems to have little or no relevance to fieldwork, but there are some excellent introductory books out there that will help you to make sense of it all.