Concerning Mino (Mina?), his previous girl friend/the one he loved who jumped off the roof top:

Did he name his pen name after her? If so, does this event occur after she jumped off, or is the suicide what pushed him over the edge into despair?

Concerning the end of the light novels:

Would we see anything developing between him and the book eating monster of a girl? In a way, I loved their antics together and hope that their relationship can remain platonic or in a more "motherly" fashion.

Does the story ends abruptly in the last book, or is there foreclosure? Does he graduate and move on?

Lastly, is the book eating youkai a joke, or does the author really want to branch off into the occult? The translation of the first book seems to indicate that he? she? would like to stick to reality as an explanation to what appears to be occult.

The narator did take his pen mane after Miu, before the ''incident'' and the said ''incident'' was put him in such state...

About the Tooko/Konoha relationship: I would say than the relationship ( and the evolution of the relationship ) betweem the 2 is the base of the big story, each story being a occasion to definite/slighty modifiate it.

About the last book, it's hard to tell because the 8th book have a big end but there another novel ...I would say than the 8th novel is the end of the serie but the 9th might be the begining of a new serie. ( what kind of ending, a ''6 year after'' endding on a particular day... I won't say more )

And about the Youkai aspect forget the occult. It's just a thing than Konoha say for teasing Tooko. She eat book, it have a bit of influence on the story but it do not ''officialy'' made her a youkai.

So... Please lay out for me the chronological order in which the events involving Miu, our protagnonist, the female pen name, and the mental break down occured.

3 years ago, Konoha fall in love with Miu,and he express his love by writing that novel under that female pen name,and Miu lied to Konoha that she can't even finish her novel during the day they release they novel,which causes Miu into heavy despair,and jumped off the roof top.
Miu is having heavy family problem since they first met,which Miu was hate Konaha the most,which she realize that Konoha doesn't notice what she have done bad to him,after she read Konoha novel,and even loves her this much,she fell despair.
Miu is really want Konaha to stay with her,even after the crash event in VOL 5,and continues to lie to Konaha,but later discovered by them later.
That novel was orginaly a way for Konoha to express love to Miu,but the end of the novel was edited before the release of the novel.Tooko know the real end of the novel,and tell it to Miu at Chapter 9/VOL 5 of the main story.
The another novel is just a story that happen right after the event of the end of VOL 8,which a new girl fall in love with Konoha,and join Literature Club.

Wait... Miu is alive?

Yup. And out for vengeance, with help from an unexpected source.

Dazai Osamu, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Longer_Human]No Longer Human

The thing about this series is that the mystery isn't actually in the story. There's a mystery surrounding Kataoka Shuuji, and each volume has something similar, but imho, the real mystery for the reader is figuring out the bold passages. There's usually something unclear about them, either concerning who's writing them, who they're being written to, etc. Figuring out that is the real mystery of the novels. (The Vol.5 one was particularly good for this)

Prepare for a rather lengthy summary... Spoilers split into more little spoiler parts, see how far you want to go :heh:.

Wow. I was surprised by the identity of the author for the bold texts... At first I thought I missed a bunch of information when I read the English translation for the first half of the 1st novel, then I realised that the last two chapters, which are left untranslated, must be the chapters with the most emotional impact.

I am looking forward to future synopsis. Thank you Selkirk!