Most diet books are full of crap. They tend to preach the idea that dieting is a difficult-to-impossible task one can only accomplish by following weird, random eating habits that make no sense and are miserable to carry out.
The Automatic Diet by Charles Platkin is the only book I've ever run across that actually works from the idea that dieting is not that complicated. The bedrock principle he's working with is "eat less, move more", and his book gives some guidance and suggestions about how to do it. Platkin's approach is empowerment-based, not willpower-based, which I also think is a step up from most diet books. He's big on taking responsibility for actions and taking control of eating habits rather than looking for a fad diet that promises a quick fix and an easy way to lose weight. I am in total agreement with him on this point, so I pretty much think he's on the right track.
The book is called The Automatic Diet because Platkin's goal is to get the reader to figure out what his or her eating habits are, followed by changes that make sense and are acceptable. There's no "If you're a Libra, you should eat nothing but melon," and thank God for that, because I'm a Libra and I hate melon. If I'd been starting the eat-less-move-more plan off all by myself, Platkin's book would have been really helpful, since there are all kinds of suggestions on how to save calories and a whole lot of eye-opening statistics on how many calories there are in common foods. There is never any sort of "you can never have butter again" in the book--for people who aren't willing to give up foods, or trade them in for lower-calorie versions of the same, Platkin suggests having less of them and having them less often, which is totally acceptable as far as I'm concerned.
All in all, it's the sanest diet book I've ever seen (and while I don't read many, I have checked them out at the library before), and I would definitely recommend it.