I am just an undergraduate student with no experience and no guidance from any teacher what-so-ever.

I have done research on Recreational Mathematics - Maths Tricks. I have a lot of new tricks to introduce, in a completely new format.

But the problem is that there doesn't seems to been any research paper on this topic before, but there are many books. My Question is can I quote Books as a source of reference instead of research papers published (I am quoting research papers related to the theorems and concepts I have used - but there is no reference to quote for the trick on which I have worked upon). Also the trick seems to be age old and extremely simple, and I think that the inventor of it is not known to the world at all.

Can I Quote the Books?(I know that the author of the book didn't invent the concept behind the trick)

I am an undergraduate student with no experience and no guidance from any teacher whatsoever.

I have done research on Recreational Mathematics (Maths tricks). I have a lot of new tricks to introduce, in a completely new format.

But the problem is that there doesn't seems to been any research paper on this topic before, but there are many books. Can I quote books as a source of reference instead of research papers published? (I am quoting research papers related to the theorems and concepts I have used - but there is no reference to the trick on which I have worked upon.) Also the trick seems to be age-old and extremely simple, and I think that the inventor of it is not known to the world at all.

Can I cite the book?  (I know that the author of the book didn't invent the concept behind the trick.)