There are only three rules for writing a novel. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books, for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.
Henry David Thoreau. I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have gone ourselves. Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. All you have to do is go to the library.