Here's a quick test. Answer the following question FAST, and please no cheating!

Question: Which of the following two book titles, sells more copies - do you think?

#1 Book - "A Thinking Person's step by Step Guide to Weight Loss & Exercise Program" & Book #2 - "Skinny Bitch"

Here's a clue: A Thinking Person's step by Step Guide to Weight Loss & Exercise Program was written and well researched by two guys with Ph.D.s

Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin, Rory Freedman was written by an ex-modelling agent and an ex-model.

So which book do you think sells more? C'mon, times up!

Which is it?

Answer: According to Amazon.com, Skinny Bitch comes in at a cool #74 whereas the former, A Thinking Person's step by Step Guide to Weight Loss & Exercise Program is their #1,065,053 best-selling book.

This begs an interesting questing... WHY?

The "Skinny Bitch" phenomenon has proven so huge, in fact, that soon men will be part of the franchise, with authors, Freedman and Barnouin's guy-targeted sequel, "Skinny Bastard," slated for release in 2009 (P.S. at the time of writing, there is no confirmation on whether Vincent Gallo will be the cover model).

The bestselling diet book provocatively titled "Skinny Bitch" features on its cover a line drawing of a lithe fashionista in a little black number. Also on its cover is a pitch to "savvy girls" to "stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!

Nowhere on the outside of the book, however, does the copy suggest its underlying agenda, which on careful inspection, seeks to make vegans of women seeking tiny little butts; but that's just a sneaky surprise - cleverly disguised by its creators. Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, the authors of "Skinny Bitch" and it's recently released follow-up cookbook, "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch," have also recently surpassed the popular Jessica Seinfeld's broccoli-spiked brownies, to create the bait-and-switch diet book of the year.

This book is a P.E.T.A. pamphlet in chick-lit clothing and an innovative fusion of animal rights activism with punitive dieting tactics that prey on women's insecurities about their weight and body shapes.

Veganism - is the practice of shunning not only meat but also most dairy products, such as foodstuffs that contain any animal products, like milk, eggs and honey -- has been enjoying a boom. In part that's due to increasing awareness of antibiotics and hormones used to treat food for animals as well as the green movement sparking concern about the smaller carbon footprint of tofu compared to steak.

And here's to the savvy marketing bit - Drum Roll Please...

A casing point to consider would be a photograph of pop star Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice, holding a copy of the 2005 title "Skinny Bitch" that jettisoned the book sales to bestseller status. (Side note: Not A Bad Idea At All)

There's no proof that Posh, who's admitted to never having read a book in her life, broke her record by cracking this one; I imagine the classification of soda as "liquid Satan" from Freedman and Barnouin would be hard to reconcile with Beckham's claim that she only drinks Diet Coke, because she hates the taste of water.

Dieters hoping the authors of "Skinny Bitch" have more nutritional savvy than Posh might be more comforted by the jacket photo of Freedman and Barnouin looking lean, rather than their food science credentials.

Barnouin left her modelling career to get a degree in holistic nutrition at what the New York Times called, in deadpan, an "unaccredited school for alternative health," and Freedman, a former modelling agent, describes herself as a "self-taught know-it-all" in her bio.