The Wall Street Journal published a list of the best-selling personal finance books of 2006 in the weekend edition. The article focused on the fact that only one of the bestsellers was published this year. But there was something else that jumped out: How truly awful many of the best-selling titles were.

Number 1 was Robert Kiyosaki's perennial bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad, which is easily the worst of the 200-plus investing/personal finance books I've read. The fact that it's written at about a third-grade level aside, it is chockful of hackneyed advice, bad advice, and just plain weird advice. He actually suggests insider trading as a way to make money in the stock market. There is also something vaguely creepy about Kiyosaki's resentment of his father who devoted his life to public service. Kiyosaki needs some counseling. For an excellent write-up of all that is wrong with this book, visit the site of real estate guru's guru, John T. Reed.

Kiyosaki also shows up at number three on the list, this time with the book Why We Want You to Be Rich, with the one, the only, and the all-too omnipresent Donald Trump. There's something really amazing about this collaboration. Most intelligent investors have long suspected that Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki were full of it. By collaborating with each other, each has successfully destroyed any credibility he might have had. It's like Michael Bolton's duet with Kenny G. It just makes you hate both of them a little bit more.

There I was, a plainly-dressed, limp-haired and under-lipsticked financial writer, descending the escalators of the glitzy, gilded Trump Towers on Fifth Avenue to reach the book party for Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump's newly released, Why We Want You to Be Rich.

And there he went, Donald Trump, larger-than-life media and real estate mogul, ascending the very same escalator. Light bulbs flashed and video cameras rolled. I fought the urge to duck lest I inadvertently end up in the background of an Entertainment Tonight spot. It was 6:30 p.m. last Thursday and the party started at 6 p.m., but I guess The Donald had already made his appearance.

Robert Kiyosaki stayed on and carried the torch for the book, conducting interviews, posing for photos, looking stylish, tanned and friendly, but also not entirely real. In fact, the quantity of make-up on many people at this event -- not just him -- made me wonder if I'd gotten stuck in a wax museum.

I enjoyed some the beef tenderloin, listened to the strolling clarinetist and snapped my photos from my Treo before, scuttling out of the event with book in hand.

On my way home, much to my surprise, I found myself enjoying the book immensely. I was actually laughing out loud at points, perhaps not necessarily in the way the authors intended, but having a grand old time just the same.

Readers who love Trump's confidence and Kiyosaki's earnestness, will no doubt get a huge kick out of seeing what happens when these two mammoth personalities come together.