Welcome to the Book Nook! The weekly thread for all book nerds on The Avocado. This is the place to talk about books you’re currently reading, discuss genres, ask for recommendations, and post serious literary criticism.

This week’s prompt: Last week, we talked about music, this week let’s discuss the visual arts. What are your favorite fiction or nonfiction books, poems, essays, etc. about painting, sculpture and the other visual arts?

Ideas for prompts are always welcome!

Today’s literary birthdays (all information courtesy of Wikipedia):
Samuel Johnson (1709), poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer (RIP 1784)
Tomás de Iriarte (1750), Spanish poet and playwright (RIP 1791)

Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner (1786) German poet and medical writer (RIP 1862)
Rafael Pérez y Pérez (1891), Spanish writer of romance novels (RIP 1984)
William March (1893), American novelist and short story writer (RIP 1954)
Kaka Hathrasi (1906), Indian satirical poet and writer of works about Indian classical music (RIP 1995)
Joe Kubert (1926, Polish-American comic book artist, writer and editor, known for his work on Sgt. Rock, Hawkman and Tarzan (RIP 2012)

Lynn Abbey (1948), American writer and editor of fantasy fiction
Anna Deavere Smith (1950), American actress and playwright
Feel free to comment about any of these folks, and/or let us know if I missed somebody.

Posting pictures is fine as long as they are book related, but I would like this thread to continue to be a NO GIF/YouTube/social media embed zone as much as possible. Thanks, and happy commenting!

Header image: Dentro Una Vecchia Libreria, by Guido Borelli