Amazon Asked:Who Moved My Rank?

Amazon.com apologized Monday for an "embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error" that led to the sales ranking being removed from tens of thousands of books.

The online retailer initially said Sunday that a "glitch" had caused the problem and promised that the numbers would be restored. But on Monday afternoon, sales numbers were still gone for such recent works as Chelsea Handler's "My Horizontal Life" and from such classics as Gore Vidal's "The City and the Pillar" and James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room."

On Monday, Amazon spokesman Andrew Herdener said that 57,310 books had been affected.