Art, essential reading?

Now I am constantly discussing Art with experts which is unnerving because “like everyone else I know nothing of Art”. I suffer from grumpy old male syndrome and "can't stand intolerance of any kind"!!

These are two books I have acquired. The one on the left send to me by a grateful publisher who needed a picture and the other I bought 10 years ago as I thought it might throw some light on the environment in which my Grandfather started his painting career.