GUILDERLAND — Guilderland Public Library is the first and only library in the Upper Hudson Library System to circulate print copies of the book “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff, about Donald Trump’s first year in the White House, according to library Director Timothy Wiles.

Guilderland’s three copies of the book — which was published several days ahead of its original schedule, after provoking the president’s ire — is checked out and had a waiting list of 235 names as of Monday afternoon.

The library usually buys its books online, Wiles said, but occasionally stops at a bookstore, usually Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, to buy copies “when a book is hot.”

Curiale said that the copies of “Fire and Fury” came from I Love Books in Delmar. The reason the library bought three and not more, Wiles said, was because those were the last copies available.

There are also six electronic copies available through the Upper Hudson Library System, and those are available equally to patrons of all the 29 member libraries in Albany and Rensselaer counties. There are 121 holds on those six copies, Wiles said.

Guilderland patrons will have a shorter wait than others for the book, though, since Guilderland patrons receive priority while waiting for bestsellers, Wiles said, adding that 26 of the 235 people hoping to read Wolff’s book are Guilderland patrons.

The number of holds should decrease soon, as other libraries begin to get the book in and as the initial burst of excitement about it starts to die down, Wiles said, noting that East Greenbush has three copies on order.

Book House’s Kathleen Carey, who manages the children’s department, said that the response to the book has been “kind of off the charts.”

The store had ordered 10 copies, “which is typical of a post-holiday book,” she said, adding that bookstores generally expect sales to slow down a bit after the holidays.

The publication date had been set for Monday, Jan. 8, she said, but after a lawyer for Trump sent a cease-and-decease letter, Macmillan — parent company of the book’s publisher Henry Holt — asked bookstores on Friday to go ahead and start selling any copies that they had on hand.

A posting on the Facebook page of Macmillan Publishers reprints in its entirety a letter from John Sergeant, the company’s chief executive officer, explaining the decision to move the publication up from the week of Jan. 8 to Friday, Jan. 5.

The letter from Trump’s lawyer demanded that Macmillan refrain from publishing, releasing, or disseminating “Fire and Fury”; this demand, Sergent wrote, was an attempt to achieve “prior restraint” of an “important book on the workings of the government,” and was “flagrantly unconstitutional.”

Book House sold out of its 10 copies, each priced at $30, in about 20 minutes, Carey said.

A shipment of 30 copies is expected soon — “hopefully today” — Carey said on Monday, but those are all spoken for by customers who have prepaid for their copies. An additional 100 or so are on order, with 60 of those currently spoken for.

Ninety percent of the phone calls Book House is receiving now are about “Fire and Fury,” Carey estimated.

The Guilderland library posted on Facebook, on Friday, that it had obtained three copies. The first comment the posting received in response was from a patron who wrote “Is this something you idiots are proud of?” The comment was later deleted.

Wiles said that since the library didn’t delete it, it must have been deleted by the person who posted it.

“We don’t remove a post,” Wiles said, adding, “Our skin is pretty thick.”

Library spokesman Mark Curiale responded on Facebook to the person who posted the comment, “While I sense you are displeased with our having added this bestseller to our collection, let me assure you doing so is in keeping with our mission, and obligation to the community, to provide a wide and varied array of works. Some you may find not to your taste, but that is the cost of living in our free and open society.”

Curiale went on to suggest that the writer of the post had the right to bring the objection to the board of trustees, which will meet this Thursday at 7 p.m. at the library.

Wiles said that there’s an old library saying: “A good library has something in it to offend everyone.” ​

Clarified on Jan. 9, 2018: The bookstore that the Guilderland library bought "Fire and Fury" from was specified as I Love Books in Delmar.