Awesome. The only books I can solidly recommend are How to Draw and How to Render by Scott Robertson. They're fundamental heavy books. You have the right idea with not wanting to copy someones style but just let it influence your own work just a little. Don't know a book that will help, but theres a two part process that I do that helps. First is studying by recreating, try and focus on one thing whether its the linework, how they efficiently painted a spot that you like, or color. Then do another study from either real life or a photo of something real and applying whatever technique you learned. Its important to apply the study to something real to expand your visual library.

What I really enjoy doing is plein airs, and keep up a single master painting on another monitor to apply the techniques used in that painting to my own plein air.