Where art thou, Christopher Pike?

I started reading Christopher Pike when I was in high school.

It all started with Die Softly, which a friend lent to me as she raved about the book. After that, I was hooked, and I devoured every Christopher Pike book that I can borrow from her. What little extra money I had left over my allowance then was spent on buying his books (well, those and cassette tapes LOL).

By the time I entered college, there were no more Christopher Pike books being sold in those big bookstores. I thought I would outgrow my love for his books as I had less of them to collect. But then I discovered a bookstore in the UP shopping center selling used books, which was a delight in itself already, but then I saw old Christopher Pike titles in there, and I was in love all over again. I scoured Booksale branches and other used-book stores just so I can find more Pike books.

Over the years, I've lost some [to I don't know where :(((] and gained more [as gifts, or unreturned loans LOL]. And here's my current stash:

[Not shown is a hardbound copy of The Season of Passage bought by my Dad <3]

As you can see, a very lowly stash it is :( By the time I finished college, I could never find Pike books anywhere anymore, so for a very long time, I would put it in any of the wishlists I would make (for Christmas and for my birthday heee).

Imagine my glee when I passed by a used-book sale and saw this:

Priced at P29.00 each! I was in Pike heaven <3

I couldn't decide though what books to buy because I couldn't remember anymore what Pike books I own already. After a good half-hour of hemming and hawing, I decided, what the hell, it's just 29 pesos, I don't care if I have two copies of the same book.

So I went home with this:

And what do you know, I didn't buy something I already owned LOL.

A few days after that shopping spree, a package I've been waiting for arrived a day early (as I shamelessly asked a friend to buy me stuff in Amazon with his Amazon credits), and now I have this:

[I'm missing the first book of the series, but what the heck, I asked for the trilogy, libre naman eh! ;)]

Yes, you can say that I was walking on Pike heaven the past few days.

The thing that really gets to me is that Christopher Pike is nowhere to be found in the intarnets. He's not on Twitter, and he doesn't have an official site (well, there's this, but who knows when will that be up?). Well it does say in his Wikipedia page that he is an extremely private person, but come on, give a little something to the fans, why don't you?

There is a fan club, and they got Christopher Pike to answer some questions. Turns out the Last Vampire Series has been republished as the Thirst series, and enjoying quite a bit of popularity these past few months.

Oh and more some surprising news. Apparently, a film company has acquired the screen rights for the Last Vampire series. Well, take that Twilight. Heh. The Last Vampire series may have wandered off to New Age-y stuff towards the last two books but I'd still have that over the Twilight series. Hihihi. Anyways, excited about that development.

It seems that vampires are really trendy nowadays because in the Q&A I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, Pike mentioned that he will add more books to the Last Vampire series. Oh well, cash in as much as you can, sir, while you enjoy a resurgence of your popularity (yeah, I have to thank Twilight for that huh?). There is a new book out though, The Secret of Ka, which was just released this month.

If you want more info about Pike's books, there's a blog recapping his books, with, of course, commentary from the blogger.

As Pike becomes popular once again, I wish some of his books be reissued, and copies be available here in our country. I'm still itchin' to complete my collection, and if the only way I can buy new Pike books is through Amazon, I'm beat (except if my friend offers to buy me something again from Amazon heeee)

So people, if you see any of the Pike books (either in those big bookstores, or in used-book stores), drop me a note, and I will swoop in and buy to my heart's content :)