Suggest some great books to help feed an artists curiosity about the world

crossposted to /suggestmeabook

I'm not an avid reader but I want to be! I love to learn and as an artist I'm always looking for connections between concepts, symbols, history, etc. in order to give narrative and layers to my art. I'm looking for some must-haves for people that are immensely curious about everything there is to know about the world; and it's important to me that things are concise, explorative, and factual. I love when a book is put together like a museum of lots of interesting blurbs of information, rather than delving strictly into one thing.

I've checked out The Book of Symbols and I thought it was wonderful. Some things I'm interested in exploring are:

– symbols (how meaning differs and changes in cultures and throughout history, symbols in conjuction with eachother, rare uses of certain symbols)

– Patterns in nature

– mythology and folklore

– perversions and taboos (as they relate to psychology, history, politics)

– Urban and suburban subcultures and movements

– Animals (in symbolism, as allegories, as they relate to the human condition)

– Animal psychology (interesting documented behaviours or interactions)

– Artistic practices from around the world

I'm open to any suggestions that have nothing to do with anything on my list! If you think it's great, and you learned a lot from it, and you think about its contents frequently, I'd love to see it mentioned

I should also mention I'm not looking for books teaching techniques or anything about learning how to make art, some people will see artist and assume I'm looking for art books!