"Read Or Die" by Kurata Hideyuki. The gateway drug to light novels. If you are the kind of person who love books more than anything else, this series is for you. If you are not that kind of bibliophile, reading this series may turn you into one.
"Read Or Die" follows the life of a bibliomania who has the special ability to control paper at will. This special ability is great plot device for an action-orientated series, which is very well demonstrated in the many action scenes found throughout this series. But those are really just icing on the cake, the best part about this series is that the main character is a bibliomania, and made many decisions primarily based on whether those choices would enable her to read more books.
These book-oriented bits include ordinary things such as buy books now rather than regret later, possibly sacrificing money that was reserved for food. Or look for books before asking for help when stuck on a deserted island. Or instantly learn a new language in order to read more... Other times it's just watching Yomiko in a state of bliss as she encounters a new stash of rare books. Being a book about books, it's easy to relate to the characters in their joy of reading as we read along ourselves.
There are many other interesting bits besides just lots of books, including many action scenes where people with extraordinary abilities fight each other, and a very ambitious story that spans the history of mankind. Unfortunately, the author seemed to have written himself into a corner, leaving a cliffhanger in volume 11 that has not been resolved since 2006. I am wondering if the author has given up already and is intentionally leaving the ending to readers' imagination. It has been 9 years already.
I had the urge to dig out "Read Or Die" today, since recently a coworker mentioned that the interns we hire now might actually be born after his first order from Amazon, a new sign of how much we have aged, and also how Amazon managed to survive that long. My first order from Amazon was not quite that old, but it happens to be "Read Or Die". This is not a coincidence -- "Read Or Die" is what got me into reading all these other books later, and definitely has influenced my preference for printed books rather than digital ones.
Fortunately, collecting books is a relatively cheap hobby. Unless you are Yomiko Readman.
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Next (2015-07-09): "Idainaru Yume" by Edogawa Ranpo