Light novels you read/collect?

What light novels do you read or collect? What are your favorites?

I've been reading Toradora! at Baka-Tsuki and liked it a lot. I'm waiting for the spin-offs to be finished before I start on them.

Also, Durarara!! by another fan translator on LiveJournal.

Both of these series I would buy in a heartbeat if available in English. (Also Baccano!, of course.)

Of course, I'm collecting the Haruhi novels - the paperback ones, because I love the way the cover designs. And I just started reading Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime - I'm only a few pages in, but so far I really like it. McGillicuddy has done a good translation so far, too, from what I can tell.

I bought the first "My Girlfriend is a Geek" novel, but it was so horrible that I returned it. It's the first book I've returned for a refund after reading in over 10 years. It was so awful.

I read the first two installments of the Book Girl series and I cannot wait for the third to come out in August. Such a great work and I am so happy that I decided to give it a shot.

Another novel I read is The Twelve Kingdoms. I love this series and it is such a shame that TOKYOPOP won't publish the rest as the rights to the rest of the volumes lie with Kodansha. Hopefully Kodansha will do something about it.

I've read Gosick 1 and 2, and enjoyed both. But I'm afraid Tokyopop has stopped translating them.
I love Haruhi, of course, and have read the first Book Girl novel. I hope soon to get my hands on Shana and Spice and Wolf.

I'm collecting the kyou kara maoh lightnovels (demon king) in german, which I adore so much.
-the paperback Haruhi LN.
-started with the Kielli novels as well.
-I did buy the first Spice and Wolf novel, but I think I cancel the other novels.. not that great for me, i found it rather boring
-Faust collections were also great
-Twelve kingdom novels are also one of my favorites!

Forgot to mention that I am also collecting the Spice and Wolf novels. Great work!

I have a friend who read the first Spice & Wolf and recommended it, so I'll probably read it soon. Plus, I want to buy as many LNs that aren't horror to try and get the companies to keep doing them. :D

I finished Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime last night and it was pretty awesome, so I'm definitely continuing that series.

I really enjoyed Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime, too! I immediately bought the next book after I finished the first.

I've also been reading the Spice & Wolf light novels--I like them much more than I thought I would. I do have a tendency to zone out a bit when the economics come to the forefront, though

I recently read Guin Saga: The Leopard Mask which is the first light novel in the series. I wanted to love the series, but the first volume didn't work that well for me. I'll still probably try another volume or two. (Only five of the 100+ volumes have been licensed in English.)

I also really liked All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka which I'm pretty sure is a light novel, although it wasn't marketed as such. Sakurazaka's Slum Online is also entertaining, especially if you like online video games.

I've only read the first Haruhi book so far. I enjoyed it immensely and have the next one on my shelf to read soon.

I've heard great things about Twelve Kingdoms, so I've got that one in my to be read pile, too.

Seems that these Twelve Kingdoms novels are popular, so I might try them too.

I too have been reading the Spice & Wolf novels and have enjoyed them. i also recently finished the first book of Moribito which i also liked, although its to bad that only the first two books are in English. I think i might also start the Crest of the Stars trilogy but i have read that the translation is not very good.

10> What's Crest of the Stars about?

10> I absolutely adore Moribito! I really wish more of the series would be published in English, but it's unlikely. The anime adaptation of the first book is also very good. Technically, I think they're considered children's novels and not light novels, but I highly recommend them anyway!

8> I have been curious about the Haruhi novels. I haven't seen the anime nor read the manga. Is reading the novels enough to get the story?

13> Uhm, yes? The novels are the original story - the anime and manga are based on them.

13>
You're better off reading the novels first and then watching the anime. It brings it alive after you've read the story on paper. I didn't like the manga, though, because I thought the art was kind of sloppy and it didn't exactly follow the story... But seriously, check out Haruhi.

- Gosick: I still maintain hope that, with the broadcast and popularity of the TV anime, Tokyopop might resume this. Personally I enjoyed reading the books more than watching the anime.

- Spice and Wolf: Rather than boring me, the economics is one of my favorite parts! I love the idea of a fantasy novel that takes a realistic look at medieval economics. The interplay between Lawrence and Holo is also quite amusing.

- Book Girl And the Suicidal Mime: I liked the 1st volume, and loved the 2nd volume. I like how each volume so far has a main "classical literary work" that they're based on, from "No Longer Human" to "Wuthering Heights"...I look forward to learning what the 3rd is based on.

- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: I can't help wishing the series was changed to "The Melancholy of Yuki Nagato" (and yeah, Disappearance was my favorite volume yet). I'm all about the hard covers.

- Rocket Girls: Still in the middle of reading the 1st book, but I'm enjoying it. It has more of a "regular SF novel" feel than others, since Hōsuke Nojiri also writes regular SF novels.

I've also read the (incomplete) fan translations of the Strike Witches novels. I'd love it if they got an official English release, but that's unlikely any time soon, orz. Oh yeah, I did get to read the translated novel bits in Nogami Takeshi's bilingual (Japanese/English) official Strike Witches doujinshi (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-05-05/strike-witches-staffer-prints-japanese/english-dojinshi). That's the closest any Strike Witches novel material has come to being "officially" in English, and it was very pleasant reading.

11> Crest of the Stars is a space opera from what i can remember from the anime its about a boy, Jinto who is the first non Abh (think space elves) to join the nobility due to his father who was the head of the planetary government surrendering their planet to Abh rule. A few years later he meets flight trainee Lafiel who also is a relative of the Abh Empires while he is transferring to the Abh military school, when their ship is attacked by an alliance of the four powers opposing the Abh empire and have to escape to warn Abh fleet of the impending full scale war.

16> i think that's my favorite part of Spice & Wolf too as economic history of the ancient and medieval world has always interested me and Spice handles it so well.

17> Spice & Wolf really does do it well. I enjoy the realism portrayed along the more supernatural elements. Lawrence & Holo are great together. I love seeing their relationship develop and their banter is entertaining. The first season of the anime is currently available streaming through Netflix. I haven't watched any of the episodes yet; has anyone else seen it?

18> I've seen it and its really good you should watch it. It follows the books well with only a few slight changes the first 6 eps make up the story from book 1 while the other 6 are the story from book 2. The animations good and they do a good job of keeping the banter between Holo and Lawrence true to the book

I have recently read the first novel of Kieli from Yen Press. I wouldn't say I loved it but I liked it enough to want to know what will happen next. I will be getting the second novel soon. Any of you guys read these novels?

I've considered it, because it looks good and has been receiving decent reviews, but I understand that it's a horror story and I don't like horror much. :(

I don't like horror at all. But, there's a lot of stories which might be classed in the genre but aren't really meant to evoke horror. Like Shigofumi, or maybe Hell Girl, for example. Stories which feature the afterlife, but are more about melancholic and poignant character studies than horror. Kieli looks a bit like that (though I haven't read them myself either).

Well, for me, Book Girl #2 was verging on too much horror for me! I mean, it's based a bit on Wuthering Heights, which was difficult to read, and then Nomura made it even more of a horror/suspense story... and I don't think the Book Girl series is considered horror at all!