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Twenty-four hours after the Sept. 11, 2001, commission report hit bookshelves across the country on July 22, the 20-copy supply in Ackerman Union sold out.

The 560-page report – ranked No. 1 in online sales on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble – reflects the nation’s widespread interest in the findings and recommendations of the committee’s 20-month investigation. The panel’s extensive deliberations attempt to decode the complexity of the country’s deadliest terrorist attacks.

The 10-member committee’s most significant recommendations called for a major overhaul of the nation’s intelligence agencies and the establishment of a counterterrorism center under one chief supervisor who would report directly to the White House. The bipartisan commission consisted of five Republicans and five Democrats.

Ackerman should be fully restocked early this week, a sales representative said, in anticipation of a second wave of students eager to read the report. The report is also available online through the commission’s and various news sources’ Web sites.

The report came with the panel’s plea for urgency to act and a pledge to make its recommended reforms a key issue in the upcoming presidential elections.

‘‘We’re in danger of just letting things slide. … Time is not on our side,’’ said former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, a Republican who served as the commission’s chairman.

Kean added that, unless the commission’s suggestions are implemented, the country would be more vulnerable to another terrorist attack.

In response, Congress will hold a series of impromptu August hearings in both Senate and House committees in which Kean and Lee Hamilton, the commission’s Democratic vice chairman, will testify. The hearings will focus on the panel’s two key recommendations.

Congress began its summer recess July 23, but leaders of both houses announced they would hold special hearings throughout the next several months, though it is unclear how soon some of the commission’s recommendations could be implemented.

“The American people expect us to act. …We don’t have the luxury of waiting for months,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Senate leaders also urged the panel to introduce legislation regarding the intelligence proposals by Oct. 1.

The report, released after the consideration of more than 2.5 million pages of documents and 1,200 interviews, makes no attempt to place blame, Kean and Hamilton wrote in the report’s preface.

Instead, “Our aim has been to provide the fullest possible account of the events surrounding 9/11 and to identify lessons learned,” they wrote.

In doing so, the report, written more like an unfolding story than an investigative report, details major failures on several fronts: travel control, military, administration and intelligence. With dialogue excerpts and extensive footnotes, the panel reveals the large extent by which communication broke down.

After a lengthy narration of the minutes and seconds that led up to the four plane hijackings and ensuing crashes, the report provides background on Islam extremists, Osama bin Ladin and the creation of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. Also included is a description of response from fire and police officials in a chapter titled “Heroism and Horror.”

Lastly, the report lists a series of 40 recommendations ranging from permanently stabilizing Afghanistan and creating a better relationship with Saudi Arabia (“a relationship about more than oil”) to improving the transitions between presidential administrations.

With the abundance of information about the attacks available in the report, students expressed varying interest in reading the report, with many saying they would have been more interested had the report been released closer to the tragedy.

This was true for students like fourth-year marine biology students Pauline Delacastillo and Melissa Lintag, who had not heard previously about the commission or the report but said they would have wanted questions answered earlier.

But third-year history student Mickel Jourabchi said he wanted the facts revealed now.

“I want to find out the real facts,” Jourabchi said, as to why he would eventually read the report. “(Students) should find out the truth. … It could affect their election choice.”

With reports from Bruin wire services. Go to www.9-11commission.gov for the complete report.