Let me tell you how did I start -
I joined a cryptocurrency exchange back in November 2017, I was then introduced to BitCoins. The first book that I was recommended to start with was -
I did pick up Mastering Bitcoin, but that is mainly written for learning to program on the BitCoin Blockchain, the first 3 chapters are a must read, and anyone like you mentioned having an arts back ground can also read and understand about Bitcoin. After reading the first 3 Chapters, I moved to listening some of the talks which Andreas has only given, you can find them in his youtube channel.
2. I then one day discovered this blog -
https://lopp.net/bitcoin.html, it has an amazing compilation of one of the best resources to learn about BitCoin, it is written by one of the very knowledgeable fellow in the BitCoin domain only. I read some of his, articles which gave a very good clarity on it.
3.The purpose is to learn about BitCoins and the underline technology, which you can do by reading some of these articles also, you can then step into the following books