LEWISTON — If you’re looking to get your hands on a copy of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” good luck to you.

Walk into any Maine library and you’ll hear the same thing: It’s not available. Not today and probably not tomorrow.

But the romance trilogy by British author E.L. James — described by just about everyone as “racy” — hasn’t been banned here. It’s just too popular to stay on the shelves.

“It’s one of those books that sort of snuck up in popularity,” Lewiston Public Library Director Richard Speer said Wednesday.

That’s for sure. Originally a self-published e-book, “Fifty Shades of Grey” was doing so well on its own that it was recently picked up by a division of Random House. It has sold more than 3 million copies in all formats.

This week, the steamy books hold the top three spots on the New York Times best-seller list.

How steamy is it?

Libraries in Wisconsin, Georgia and Florida have either declined to order the book or have pulled it from shelves based on public concern about the content.

Speer said he had not heard any such complaints in Lewiston. The library does have an avenue for people who want to argue the appropriateness of particular books, he said. But so far, interest has been only academic. People want to read the trilogy no matter how long they have to wait.

“We started getting a lot of requests for it,” Speer said.

The Lewiston Public Library has three print copies of the book, and the waiting list is long. Around the state, more than 300 people have “holds” on copies of the book, meaning that if you want to check it out, you’ll have a long wait.

Speer said the library board gets together regularly to decide which books will be stocked.

“We look at a variety of criteria, and popularity is one of the criteria we go by,” he said.

The novel follows a young college graduate and her entrepreneur boyfriend and features bondage and sometimes graphic sex. It has been called “mommy porn” because of its popularity among middle-aged women. The trilogy has become so well-known that “Saturday Night Live” performed a skit about it.

Though banned in some parts of the country, local readers tend to support the local libraries that continue to make the book available.

“Wow,” said one Rumford woman in an online chat about the bannings. “That just makes me want to read it more.”

Angela Hoy, who operates the publishing company Booklocker.com said if the author of “Fifty Shades of Grey” is guilty of anything, it’s bad writing. The book is repetetive and tiresome, she said –  not a valid reason to ban it anywhere.

“In my opinion,” Hoy said, “as long as the fictional sex is between two consenting adults and children are not involved, the American public deserves to make the decision about what they do or do not want to read.”

Maine author R.J. Keller agreed, pointing out that banning a book often has the opposite result of what was intended: It can become more popular as people read about it and wonder what the buzz is about.

Librarians in at least four Florida counties have declined to buy the book — even though hundreds of people have requested it. Reasons range from not having the money to poor reviews.

“It doesn’t suit our community standards,” said Cay Hohmeister, director of libraries for Leon County, where Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, is located.

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