Oh, that's pretty nifty! I've met some magic users where the magic's inherited through a line, others where the magic was a trade. Unfortunately when I started, I didn't have a rain of books hitting me on the head for research purposes - the more I dreamed, the more knowledge I ended up getting. My head's like a steel trap when it comes to my magic; I could probably write my own book, whenever I feel productive. But studying's always good, just to get a better idea of what the hell you're getting yourself into.
I have a location waaaay outside county lines where I let the big guns loose and try it out. That way I'm not getting arrested or accidentally destroying someone's house/job again. For the smaller stuff, I stick to the remote woodsy areas away from people. But the 'smaller stuff' can still catch trees on fire, so I've yet to come up with an alternative.