Reading Art, Art for Book Lovers begins with a preface which celebrates a revolutionary yet everyday object: the book — and its reader. Readers, it tells us, were represented in art long before books as we now know them. And while much of art shows us how life has changed, artworks representing books show us moments of shared humanity that transcend culture and time.

The artworks are arranged not chronologically or by medium but by these connections. We see them curated by an idea or concept, such as the burning or censorship of books. So there is Marta Minujin's installation 'Parthenon of Books' sited in the very place where the Nazis burned books in 1933, along with Banned Book 3 by Liu Ye which references the Cultural Revolution with a girl reading, her face hidden, ready to spring away from a forbidden book.

Those of us who love books and reading as a stimulus for endless curiosity will find plenty of images which celebrate the pivotal role of books in disseminating knowledge and ideas. Books were crucial to the spread of Christianity and to the dissemination of information which brought us the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment. There is Laurent's portrait of 'Gutenberg, Inventor of the Printing Press' and 'Dewattines the Bookbinder' by Debaene Alphonse-Jules, and there are author portraits such as Émile Zola and a still life titled 'The Writer's Table: a Precarious Moment'. There are many portraits of women reading, ranging from those exhorting women to read 'improving books' such as Bibles and Psalters, to those reading scandalous novels and erotica.

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I love art, and I really miss going into Chicago to visit our art museum. I've been paging through this book for the past few weeks, and just love looking through so many pictures I had never encountered before. Books and art, how can that be a miss?

The first is a fresco, found when Pompeii was excavated, of a woman holding a stylus and wax tablet by an unknown artist. It is kept at the National Archeological Museum of Naples. There are many painiting within this collection, different people from different time periods, holding books, some with explanations,csome not. Of book shelves, and book sayings, some nudes, some saints, all gorgeous.

I never knew Renoir painted Monet, but he did and it's wonderful. A very thoughtful Monet, smoking a pipe, peering down at the book in front of him. My favorite book saying was from Kathleen Norris and says, " Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier." I agree. Oh, the wonder of books. ( )