Start with high-confidence aesthetics books, then narrow by subgenre or adjacent topics.
The Present Age
Soren Kierkegaard, Søren Kierkegaard
Better Living Through Criticism
A. O. Scott
Aesthetic Theory
Theodor W. Adorno, Robert Hullot-Kentor
In Praise of Shadows
Junichiro Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
The Other Synaesthesia
Susan Bernstein
