I want to read more books about art without boring me to tears.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140135154/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ - John Berger

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003R4ZIXA/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ is a wonderful read. It's not hyperfocused on a single work, but it's very, very good.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/05/20/bib/010520.rv081854.html by Gibson.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/321552.The_Agony_and_the_Ecstasy. Ok I'm not entirely serious.

I would check out http://www.metafilter.com/43104/Peter-Weiss-and-the-Aesthetics-of-Resistance by Peter Weiss, author of the play Marat/Sade. A large and complex work, the focus of the novel is the time from the late thirties into World War II -- though there is no strict chronology in the novel, and there are many varied essayistic digressions. Weiss uses historical facts and a huge number of personages as the basis for his novel. The central characters, insofar as there are any, are the members of a small resistance group (called "Red Orchestra" by the Nazis). The group was active until late 1942 when most of the members were captured and executed (after being tortured), scenes that Weiss vividly captures. An unnamed narrator -- a Weiss-like figure -- tells the story. It is not, however, a simple narrative, beginning with its challenging opening section, a lengthy, precise, and evocative descriptive section on the Pergamon altar, a stunning relief piece taken from Greece and installed in a Berlin museum. Art is central to the novel, as Weiss returns again and again to the aesthetics of the title. Géricault's Raft of the Medusa is another piece discussed at length, opening the second volume. Angkor, Picasso's Guernica, socialist realist painting, and Goya -- to name only a few -- also find their place. unfortunately, only the first book is translated into english, but the writing is kind of amazingly elegant in a Proustian sort of way. (there are pdfs of it all over the internet)

I really enjoyed http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375759867/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/, which is a very accessible book about the history of a lost (but recently found!) painting by Caravaggio. "Jonathan Harr has taken the story of the lost painting, and woven from it a deeply moving narrative about history, art and taste--and about the greed, envy, covetousness and professional jealousy of people who fall prey to obsession. It is as perfect a work of narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read." --The Economist

I'm reading http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802717055/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ right now & am really enjoying it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520212118/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ is fascinating and worthwhile.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823042855/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ is marvelous. Basically it's sort of a mass biography of the Brotherhood and their models. It gives the same sort of art history context while humanizing the artists. It's also a lovely book - lots of images of primary documents and the artworks themselves.