BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Amazon Inc. said an "embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error" caused the removal of more than 57,000 titles from its main search function.

    The disappearance of books created an uproar among consumers. "It impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as health, mind and body, reproductive and sexual medicine, and erotica." said Drew Herdener, spokesman for the online retailer, in a statement Monday.

    "This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error," said Herdener.

    The online retailer initially said Sunday that a "glitch" had caused the problem and promised that the numbers would be restored. But Monday afternoon, sales numbers were still gone for such recent works as Chelsea Handler's "My Horizontal Life."

    The error also had the effect of removing the "sales rank" of affected books, a metric that allows the public to see the relative success of a book and the topic-based bestseller lists on which it might appear.

    By Monday evening, some of the books had been restored to their previous status.

    (Agencies)