GraphQL is the modern way to create flexible, robust, and strictly-typed APIs. Creating a books API from scratch involves setting up a new project, installing dependencies, creating an index.js file, defining the schema, writing resolvers, and initializing an ApolloServer instance. The server can then be run, allowing clients to query the API using a GraphQL IDE like Apollo Explorer. Next steps include continuing to build out the API, implementing authentication and authorization, securing the API from malicious requests, splitting the schema into multiple files, integrating client-side GraphQL libraries, and deploying the API to production.