On the subject of reading.

I’ve been thinking a lot about books lately, particularly about reading them, though I haven’t been doing that a whole lot (I’m still working on Crime & Punishment). I think they’re just a funny thing, all those words strung into sentences that make paragraphs that construct chapters that build up the pages and pages it takes to complete a book. That is essentially what makes a book, but what about the idea behind it, the plot line? How does one go about making one of those. I’m terribly interested, since I’ve been trying to make one myself but keep coming up short. Obviously you need a beginning, a middle and an end, but a book, or the story that makes the book, is such an intricate and complex thing, you can’t just sit down and write one. It takes an idea, but it can’t be a dormant one, it has to grow, not whither and die (like the flower on my windowsill). And what’s more, once you have this elusive idea you have to know how to take care of it, how to make it grow, and it’s not an easy thing, not for me. So how is it people come up with such amazing ideas, and follow through with them, use them to construct a plot line that eventually fills out with words strung into sentences that make paragraphs that construct chapters that build up pages and pages until the book is complete?
If only I knew the answer to that, and could use it to my benefit, I would know something truly amazing.
If only.