Seriously. Every huge, impossible project is made up of a bunch of smaller projects that are totally doable, plus maybe a couple that are actually hard. Divide and conquer is one of the most important skills you can develop as a programmer. Start with the first easy thing you can think of that you'll need to do before you get to the big hard thing, and get some code on the screen. Keep doing that. Pretty soon you'll find you have most of it done.
And as for the reading thing, you should expect to be spending more time reading than writing code. I think my time is about 50/50 now, and I've been coding professionally for three years, after doing a BS and about 70% of a master's in comp sci.