More "reading art" (for Ellen Kushner):

“Literature duplicates the experience of living in a way that nothing
else can, drawing you so fully into another life that you temporarily
forget you have one of your own. That is why you read it, and might even
sit up in bed ’till early dawn, throwing your whole tomorrow out of
whack, simply to find out what happens to some people who, you know
perfectly well, are made up.”  – Barbara Kingsolver

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the
history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me
that the things that tormented me most were the very things that
connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been
alive."  - James Baldwin

“We possess the books we read, animating the waiting stillness of their
language, but they possess us also, filling us with thoughts and
observations, asking us to make them part of ourselves."  – David L. Ulin

"Live for a while in the books you love. Learn from them what is
worth learning, but above all love them. This love will be returned to
you a thousand times over. Whatever your life may become, these books
-of this I am certain- will weave through the web of your unfolding.
They will be among the strongest of all threads of your experiences,
disappointments, and joys." - Rainer Maria Rilke 

“So often, a visit to a bookshop has cheered me, and reminded me that
there are good things in the world.” – Vincent van Gogh

"The Poor Poet" by Carl Spitzweg  (German, 1808-1834); "My Life in Bed" by  Joseph Hubbard (American), "Girl Reading," an etching by James Abbott MacNeill Whistler (American, 1934-1903); "Reading in Bed" by Peter Brannan (English, 1926-1994);  "Boys Reading," a  photograph by André Kertész (Hungarian-American, 1894-1985 ), "The Dramatist: A Portrait of the Artist's Husband" by Brigit Ganley (Irish, 1909-2002); "Girl Reading" and "Interior with Duncan Grant Reading" by Vanessa Bell  (English, 1879-1961); "Portrait of Chattie Salaman" by Duncan Grant (English, 1885-1978);  "Woman Reading" by Alexander Deineka (Russian, 1899-1969); "A Lady Reading" and "Reader With Yellow Necklace" by Félix Vallotton (Swiss, 1865-1925); "Sally" by Mia Wolff (American);  "The Blue Pool: Dorelia with Book" by Augustus John (Welsh, 1878-1961); "The Precious Book" and "Brown Tea Pot with Yellow Book" by his sister, Gwen John (Welsh, 1876-1939); "Novels" and "Novel Reader" by Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)'  "Hall's Bookshop in Royal Tunbridge Wells, west Kent" by John Wheatley (English, 1892-1955); and a "A Song Worth Volumes by Camille Engle (American), from her lovely Literary Roost series.