How can I direct attention on an breath without consciously breathing? In every guided meditation or in the books I've read on meditation, I've been told to observe and hold sustained awareness towards the the 'meditation object', that is my breathing. When I do that, though, I stop breathing automatically and instead have to control my breaths. Can someone explain to me what's going on? Is this okay? Or is there a way I can observe my breath whilst automatically breathing?
These books are wrong, which is why relatively few Buddhists are stream-enterers or reach jhana. 

To observe the computer screen in front of you, you do not have to do anything with your eyes. The seeing of the computer screen happens automatically, as long as your head is pointed in the direction of the computer screen &amp; your mind is not asleep. 

Similarly, in meditation, feeling &amp; knowing the breathing happens automatically, as long as the mind is quiet, still &amp; gentle. All that is really needed is to sit upright with a still, quiet, gentle, awake mind. 

The difficult part is the quiet clear mind. If this can be done, the breathing part is easy because the body breathes automatically &amp; the mind knows breathing automatically when the mind is quiet. 

The path of the Buddha is the giving up of craving, which includes not craving when meditating. 

The Zen masters say: 'The silent mind can listen to grass'.