The Sofa Shelf

There are four new books on the Sofa Shelf this week. If you want to know what books were already on the shelf you can see them here: http://onthearmofthesofa.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-sofa-shelf.html and you can find out how I'm getting on with them here: http://onthearmofthesofa.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/sofa-shelf-update.html

It's a bit of mix this week:

Racing Through the Dark - The Fall and Rise of David Millar

This is an autobiography of Garmin-Sharp, pro-cyclist, David Millar. It's the first time I have read an autobiography and I'm excited about the new experience. I've chosen an autobiography of a cyclist because after reading cycling is my great love. If I could work out a way to do both of them together I would. The world stops for me in July with the Tour de France. It was while watching the Tour de France that I first heard of David Millar. I didn't start watching the Tour until a few years ago and the first time I saw David Millar he was responding to an interview by talking about his return to the sport from a doping ban. Reading this book is my way of trying to get an insight into this part of the cycling world, a side of the sport I know very little about. Incidentally this book was written before Lance Armstrong confessed to doping.

Holiness - J. C. Ryle

J. C. Ryle is one of my favourite Christian writers. What I love about the way he writes is the concern he has for his readers. There is no getting away from the fact that he truly cares for those who read his books. I haven't read Holiness before but already I'm feeling deeply challenged. You would need to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the way he pleads with his reader to put their trust in Jesus for salvation or, if they have already done so, to press on and not be lazy in the way they live for Jesus in this life.

Wessex Tales - Thomas Hardy

It's Hardy again. This time it is a book of his short stories that I picked up in a second hand bookshop in Sheringham, Norfolk. Some of them I have read before, but I enjoyed them so much the first time that I'm looking forward to reading them again. I've read the first one in this collection called The Three Strangers and it was just as good the second time round.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

I read this book in 2009 and didn't enjoy it. The aspects of the book that I found irritating are probably the ones that make you want to keep reading. For example the short chapters, some no longer than a page, that end on a cliff-hanger so that you jump to the next chapter without thinking about pausing for a break. However, I've just recently finished reading Angels and Demons and I did enjoy that, without finding the short chapters annoying. What I am finding interesting is the striking similarity between the beginning of both books. Robert Langdon awoken in the middle of the night to be consulted about a grim murder. A mysterious assassin hired by an anonymous agent. I'm not sure how I feel about books in a series that follow a formula. When this book came out there was a fair bit of controversy surrounding it concerning the subject that it covers. It seems to me that most of that has died down now, but one thing I will be doing while reading this book is to make sure that I know the reasons for believing what I do.

Let me know what you think of my choices and if you have read any of them.