'The Escape Artist' was probably the best written of the lot I mentioned. Matt Seaton is a journalist himself - writes a bike column for the Guardian - so knows how to string a sentence or two together. It's really an ode to one man's love for cycling and how it helped him to escape the rigours of dealing with an ill wife and two young kids. It's not as grim as it sounds, far from it at times, and was highly praised when it came out. Not your typical blokes book about sport.
'The Hour' is about the hour record and is written by a bloke who had a crack at it. It's written in a humorous, breezy style and will tell you everything you need to know about the history of the record and lots about the author as well. I enjoyed it.
'A Significant Other' is about a domestique on lance's team from a few years ago, a columbian rider, and by using the narrative device of focusing the book on a key TdF stage that lance won, discusses the role of the domestique, strategies that teams and riders employ, the history of the tour and quite a bit about the chap himself (can't recall his name) and the race scene in Columbia. Matt rendell has authored quite a few cycling books and was part of the ITV team covering this year's race. Again, well written and interesting though did skip a few pages about the tour and its symbolism to the french - starts getting a little existential and I haven't got time for that in book about bikes!
Harry and the Dinosaurs; been there got the tee-shirt. Beats Thomas the bleedin' tank engine any day though so don't complain too much ;)