Remember how I told you about the latest Vertical Vednesday the other week? The on light novels that I was disappointed to miss because of the poor weather that day. Well, thank goodness for Serdar over at Advanced Media Network, who trudged through the rain to report on what went on.

So, in the interests of spreading the word on Vertical Vednesdays and light novels, I present to you Serdar's writeup. Held over at Kinokuniya Books, the event is a chance for fans, journalists, and industry members to gather near Bryant Park and discuss various topics. Led by Ed Chavez, the current Marketing Director of Vertical, he brings a wealth of knowledge to these meetings.

I was hoping that this week's VV would present a bit of insight into Vertical's plans on publishing light novels over here, but instead I was presented with a bit more of a bleak outlook. Apparently Tokyopop had canceled a run of the Chibi Vampire light novels part-way through (I didn't even know they existed.) Nor did I realize that Scrapped Princess or Slayers had light novels here in the States. It's an area that is really not marketed well, and is subject to discrimination by the general public, often putting them within young adults fiction or such.

From my perspective, I've always viewed light novels as a good study tool as a bridge between reading manga and moving on to full-length novels. While the language is no easier, it's generally a shorter read and more often than not, I would have some idea what is going on because my tendency is to pick up stories that I already have a knowledge of (series like Toradora, Haruhi, etc.) I can't deal with them very well, at least not yet, but I'm working towards it.

Do any of you have an appreciable collection of light novels, either in English or Japanese? If so, what sort of titles do you usually go for?