A good book will inspire you, not to copy it but to try to write as well. A bad or boring book will teach you what not to do. Besides, reading's fun and much easier than writing. It's as if they think that ideas rain down out of the skies, bonk you on the head and flow straight through your body and fingers onto the paper. Those of us who work at this craft know this is just not so.
Writers are always on the alert for new ideas, new inspirations for stories.
I like to think of a writer as a big, walking sponge, absorbing everything that is going on around him or her. You hear of a young girl who had a tragic life many, many years ago. You begin to think that you'd like to find out more about her, that you'd like to write a story about her. There are two words that are magic for a writer and never fail to spark ideas. Ideas are all around us.