I was watching Anime for a long time already, picked up a manga here and there but I didn’t really enjoy them. It felt like there was so little story and I could finish one in under an hour. So I gave up on Manga.
I watched So I’m a Spider, So What?/ Kumo desu ga, nani ka? when it started airing and it hooked me instantly. Her character. The world. The comedy. Everything. (Except the humans…).
Once it was over, I wanted more. And since everyone kept saying the Light Novel is way better, especially the human side, I bought the first 3 volumes.
It was amazing. I binge read them until I had to wait for the English releases. Right now I’m waiting for vol. 16 to be available again so I can finish this series.
I don’t remember exactly which light novel was my first, but I know it was a fan translation I read after an anime’s end. I was pretty snobby about the quality of the translation and someone suggested I give the official translation a try and from that point I was hooked. Right now I read around 170-200 volumes per year (though I won’t reach those numbers this year - too many great games eating up my leisure time).