What level of beginning are you? Undergraduate? I am a graduate student, and I get a lot out of self-help books. There are ideas there that could be used with clients, and you will learn them best by trying them with yourself first. Another thing that I have learned is that you have to learn to listen, and to encourage people to do their own critical thinking. Even if you can see right down to the roots of their problems, they won't hear you until you can help them to feel heard and understood, and what you can help them to figure out themselves will make a much bigger difference than what you figure out for them.

A lot of what we use in graduate classes are similar or even the same books used in undergraduate classes. The topics just repeat and go deeper and broader, building on what you have already learned.

If you are interested in good books about therapy, I just checked Amazon.com and found some good titles under these searches: therapy, motivational interviewing, positive psychology, counseling.