[Cthulhu_]

Except then your main determination is to read more books, not to "succeed" whatever your definition of that is.

The problem is that people read books and get a short spurt of inspiration and desire, but said inspiration / desire is for the end goal - to get there you need to do a journey first. Ferris didn't write his book overnight or even in a few weeks (maybe the summary), nor did he just have the ability to write books - that stuff takes time. It's just that looking at people who got to the end result make it look easy.