by Craig Stark 23 March 2009

Here's an interesting idea for a diet: "Never eat anything that you cannot get naked, armed with only a sharp stick." In case you haven't noticed, the so-called Paleo diet, which essentially attempts to mimic what cavemen would've eaten back in the day, is hot stuff these days - and this book, Neanderthin, is selling hand over fist at $40 and up. First published in 1995 as a hardback (and still marketable, by the way), Neanderthin is perhaps the closest thing to a Paleo bible out there, though there are many competitors popping up. The key to this book's value is that Audette's diet ...

... works!

You eat until you're full, and you lose weight (assuming you need to). In the process of researching books to include in QMR, I often read Amazon reviews for value clues. In this case, I starting reading them and didn't stop until I'd read all 50 - and I came away amazed at the consistency of feedback. With the exception of a few academic types who weighed in to pan Audette's scientific basis for this or that, everybody who tried this diet seemed to lose weight without deprivation. It almost makes one wonder if the caveman had it right, and all of the remarkable things we've done to alter and even create new foods have only sent us on the road to poor health.

You'll see 100 profit-producing books like this every 3 months in BookThink's Quarterly Market Report of Common, Profitable Books, each one presented in a clear format with bibliographic essentials and links to photos. Here is the actual entry for Neanderthin, #31 in QMR, issue #6:

TITLE: NEANDERTHIN: EAT LIKE A CAVEMAN TO ACHIEVE A LEAN, STRONG, HEALTHY BODY
AUTHOR: Ray Audette
ILLUSTRATOR: n/a
EDITOR: n/a
PLACE: New York
COPYRIGHT DATE: 2000
IMPRINT: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ISBN OR LCCN: 0312975910
ISBN-13: 978-0312975913
BINDING: Softcover
LINK: