I agree that just learning the patterns is not enough. The problem with most books is that they do not provide real-world examples. I've heard that Head First Design Patterns, as some suggested earlier, is a good one.
Another thing is that most books are intentionally not language-specific, which may be both a good or a bad thing for you. However important is to understand a pattern in general, it is equally important to know how to implement it well. I've come across a book called C# 3.0 Design Patterns which devotes just about equal ink to both of these unseparable aspects.
