I took two art history classes in college and really wish I still had the textbook. I joined the Art Institute of Chicago and I plan to visit often this year. What would be a good art history book I can pick up for a reasonable price. Perhaps a college textbook that I can find a used edition?
While it’s not strictly art history, Simon Schama’s The Power of Art is an interesting take of paintings and their place in history. The cheapest copy is $12.
Ernst Gombrich’s The Story of Art is a classic - it’s available for $24 new on Amazon US.
I WAS JUST COMING TO POST THAT! Damn, people here are fast.
Well at least I brought a link with me. 
Gombrich is the obvious answer.
But if you plan to be visiting the Art Institute of Chicago regularly, it might be worth investing in a copy of its Essential Guide. It is true that, world-class though they undoubtedly are, the Art Institute’s collections - and therefore the Essential Guide - are too uneven for a balanced overview, but this would help place the highlights into their wider context. My recollection is that it’s quite a good example of the genre.
“History of Art” by H.W. Janson has always been my bible. This is the edition I have, but there are many others. In all the decades since I bought it, I’ve never seen anything better.
Not a general history of art, but a book with lots of interesting background on images in Western art (mostly religious painting) that you might consider obtaining through inter-library loan is Sally Fisher’s The Square Halo and Other Mysteries of Western Art: Images and the Stories that Inspired Them.
Art - A New History is on my shelf and very often pulled out.
I have a handbook called History of Art that’s small enough to fit into a backpack or purse. Kirsten Bradbury, Antonia Cunningham, Luinda Hawksley and Laura Payne are the contributors, printed by Parragon Publishers. It’s set up in such a way to make a quick “find” easy.
My wife tells me Janson is mostly western art and male artists.
Janson’s new editions are better than they used to be (the case for all of the textbooks-- much more woman/ non-white, etc included these days). Other good surveys (which usually include some chapters on non-European traditions) include “Gardners’ Art through the Ages” (editors vary-- now Tansey and Mayima?) and Stokstad’s “Art History”.
I’m going to buy the Essential Guide tomorrow at the bookstore. I think I’ll get the Gombrich book next.
Thanks for all the suggestions, I’ll probably end up reading them all. I’m really looking forward to my membership at the Art Institute.
The CPL has a couple of copies, so inter-library loan is not necessary if the OP lives in Chicago or a suburb with reciprocal borrowing. The CPL may also have some of the other books mentioned in this thread.