Have you ever come close to these shops that have hard bound bundles of paper? They happen to have titles written along the length of the spine? Yes, those are what happen to be called "books". These are creatures borne of a writer's mind and usually involve twisted plots and characters in order to make the reader interested.
I'm sure you've at least read one or two during your life time, and that may even be because school has a mandatory need for all students to read a couple of choice novels. For instance, "How to kill a mockingbird" is often read during the tenth grade. Well, in Canada at least.
Now, these books are not to be feared. They are actually quite helpful for those of you on your way to becoming full-fledged writers. (I didn't say author for a reason here). What these books will really help you do is :
I. develop your vocabulary and your comprehension of character development and plot lines.
II. inspire your own creative genius to blossom from the depths of your mind.
and III. give you a model to follow after.
I'm not saying that any novel you read should heavily influence your writing, and that you should copy it line per line. I mean to say that this novel that you've just read will help be a guide to structure and a means to help you draw out your own inner voice (more on the inner voice later).
So, the gist of this post is mainly to explaint that books are not to be feared.
If you plan on becoming an author any time soon, the thing you need to do most (the most basic of rules) is to READ! Reading is the best way to understand the audience that you will try to appeal to. Reading is the way to try and discern what the writer is thinking and what they did to elicit a certain reaction from their audiences.
Just remember that.
Best of luck.
