I know more about her sexual, medical and psychological history than I do my own; thanks to her, the nation knows more personal details about more footballers than can possibly be healthy and yet, still, the Jordan tipping point has yet to be reached.

This weekend, thousands went out and bought Being Jordan, the autobiography of Katie Price, shooting it in to number one in the nonfiction charts with a catcalling screech. Actually, let's qualify that: thousands of women went out to buy the musings of Katie Price; 80% of last weekend's customers were female.

So do women - to use a phrase rarely uttered in relation to the statuesque Price - like Jordan for her personality (that men apparently don't is probably less of a shocker)? After the reality TV, the endless interviews and serialisations, don't we know enough about being Jordan? To answer these rhetorical ponderings, I took to the streets.

First, HMV on Oxford Street in London. There's Being Jordan, perched pertly, if somewhat sluttishly, at the tills. I wait for a taker. And wait. For such an alleged hot-seller, a hot-cross bun this ain't. At last, an oddly be-hatted female picks up Jordan, but she says the three words guaranteed to kill all promise of comedy potential: "We are German." Another arrives (Sophie, 31, PR) and reaches for Jordan. "She's a complex character," Sophie explains. "She makes a great topic for dinner party conversation." Lisa says she is "interested in what Jordan has to say, particularly after I'm a Celebrity", but doesn't buy the book.

Several more women pick it up (no men), only to reach for My Side "by" David Beckham, before heading to the tills. I have a brief flick through Being Jordan. I put it back on the shelf. It's not that my mind is too lofty - just that I have read it all before, as has anyone else with a similar magazine habit, and those of stronger willpower wouldn't succumb, begging the question: who is reading this?

Next, Waterstone's in Piccadilly. "Most of those kinds of books are sold at personal book signings," sighs one staff member. Miss Price herself is elsewhere today. Next, the cerebral Hatchards. "Do we have Being who?" On to Borders in Islington. The Da Vinci Code is very popular. Being Jordan is not.

It would undoubtedly be a different story if the lady, blonde and bullish, was making a personal appearance, as she will in the Bluewater shopping mall in Essex later this week.

Maybe the anthropologists are right: women do like a little verbal seduction before making the commitment.