Adam,
Great! Now, don't buy another bonsai book. Instead, buy (or check out from the library) books on landscape painting and the techniques of art/painting composition. There are lots available and these kinds of things will help you to learn about the techniques of artistry. After you've gone through them a time or two, go back to your bonsai books and you'll be amazed at the simplicity and importance of the principles that most of them touch upon for bonsai formation and display.
Oh, but if you do get another bonsai book, get Dave DeGroot's "Basic Bonsai Design." You can get it through the ABS website
www.absbonsai.org . It's cheap (like $12 or something).
Thanks for giving this stuff a chance.
Kind regards,
And Rutledge
zone 8, Texas