Recently my book club chose to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.  It is a philosophical read about the meaning of life and the nurturing effect of beauty and art on human existence.  Sounds very heavy, but it is a joy to read and a must for art lovers.  There were so many wonderful passages in the book that I was constantly folding over pages, underlining, and highlighting whole paragraphs. 
One particular passage that spoke to me was about still life painting, partly because, at the time I was reading the book, I was also working on a still life painting for  the October show at the gallery where I am a member.  A short excerpt  goes like this:
          "we gaze at a still life, when - even though we do not pursue it - we delight
            in its beauty, a beauty borne away by the magnified and immobile figuration
            of things.......this still life incarnates the quintessence of art, the certainty of
            timelessness....."
I have included in this post my painting entitled Hot! Hot! Hot! that was created for the still life show.  It transports me to a particular time and place in the early Fall in Southwest Virginia and a stop by a roadside stand laden with fall fruits and vegetables.  The bounteous array beckoned me to grab my camera and start clicking away.  One of those photographs became the subject of my painting.  And even though you, the viewer, did not actually experience this image, hopefully you can gain pleasure from this arrangement and maybe recall a time and place when you had a similar experience. 
And if you love to read and love art, you will love this book.