Been on a bit of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. bender lately and I was trying to find the original material (Like how the Fallout trilogy finds its origins in a Boy & His Dog) which is the film Stalker and the book Roadside picnic.

Then I find out no walk in bookstore carries Roadside picnic. None at all, not Walden, Borders or even Barnes & Nobles. At first I just thought "Well Call of Pripyat came out people probably ate up all the few copies they had" but they don't carry it at all, they never did, not even on their online stores.

So I know it's on Amazon and I check it and they're all 100+ dollars, the only slightly cheaper ones are from private and 3rd party sellers. That's highly unusual, in fact it's extremely strange (almost ironically fitting too considering the setting).

And just now I checked if Wikipedia had any explanation as to why the book is so hideously expensive even with multiple reprints and I find that you can download a PDF of the novel for free. This is great but I'd still would've loved to had a physical copy and I'm still left wondering: Why is Roadside Picnic so damn expensive?! Does anyone have any idea at all?