Madonna's Sex most sought after out-of-print book

Madonna, pictured in July in New York. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

Madonna's explicit book Sex is once again America's most sought after out-of-print title of the year, according to BookFinder's annual report.

The graphic coffee-table book, featuring – in the words of BookFinder, "photos of the Material Girl, without the material" – has been one of the most popular out-of-print titles in the US for years and a collector's item since it was first published in 1992. "Since Madonna is never one to do something twice, and the fact that the once highly controversial book is less edgy than it once was leads us to guess that Sex will remain out of print," predicted the book search engine, a subsidiary of AbeBooks, last year.

BookFinder has tracked the most searched for out-of-print titles in America over the last 12 months for its annual report, which sees romantic suspense author Nora Roberts's novel Promise Me Tomorrow come in second. The prolific author has "actively persuaded her loyal fanbase to avoid this early novel for years", said BookFinder, with a used bookshop likely to be "the only place you will find this title" these days.

Out-of-print titles by Stephen King, Johnny Cash, Ray Bradbury, Carl Sagan, CS Lewis and Philip K Dick also appear on the list, with more esoteric offerings also flying high: knitting supremo Alice Starmore's Tudor Roses, featuring "sweater designs inspired by the Tudor royals", was also much in demand, while Sarah Bradford's 1989 biography of George VI, The Reluctant King, "shot into steady demand" following the success of the Colin Firth film The King's Speech, said BookFinder.

Alison Flood guardian.co.uk