This says it all. The built in dictionary is bloody fantastic, and the search function is also good. You can search for any word/grammar point in any book.
I read light novels a lot, so here are some recommendations.
ソードアート・オンライン
ダンまち
盾の勇者の成り上がり
回復術士のやり直し
オーバーロード
無職転生
転スラ
Log Horizon
ようこす実力至上主義の教室へ
You can not open a Japanese bank account remotely. They are highly regulated, like the phone lines.
You need a residence permit or nationality. Maybe some kind of visas get access to them too, but I have my doubts. That’s why either credit card or phone number verification are quite effective sadly.
Next time I visit Japan I’ll rent a phone number and get all this shit done, hopefully my account will allow me to purchase again after that but not holding my breath.
I can almost guarantee you that your vocabulary isn’t strong enough to read an LN casually and without a dictionary…YET.
I can also tell you that it will never become strong enough until you force yourself to jump in. You will drown in unknown vocabulary at first, but it slowly gets easier and easier as you go.
Like Megumin, I highly recommend Koohi Cafe
The main purpose of the site is to pre-learn a bunch of words before you start reading the next chunk of the book. This should help you from having to look up too many words as you go, thereby breaking your immersion and fun factor.
When you start out, you may find you can only read a page or 2 at a time before your head feels like it’s about it explode. Keep it up everyday and soon enough you’ll be reading 5 pages in one sitting, and then 10, and then whole chapters. And, assuming you have a decent foundation in basic grammar, this will actually happen faster than you might think!
Personally, I found that reading LNs was game changing in terms of strengthening my Japanese comprehension and reading skill (which in turn helped my listening skills as well). Your passive vocabulary will absolutely explode by reading books in a way that other types of reading don’t seem to compare to.
All amazing recommendations. I’d like to add 本好きの下剋上 - I’m completely obsessed right now!
I’m not sure about all the banks, but I think you need a residence card to open a bank account.
But you don’t need to have a Japanese bank account to pay on Amazon. I have my local one added and it works perfectly.
Fortunately there wasn’t any problem with the non-Japanese IP address for me so far.
I see a Japanese section under foreign languages on my American Kindle account.
Is that just not good enough for you people?
Not everyone is in America. I struggle to find a selection of english books even in my region’s Amazon. Kobo not so much.
unable to get digital content from amazon.co.jp even using my vpn - I guess maybe it’s because I’ve a UK address associated with the account (for when I buy physical books)
You can try if it’s the address, get a Tenso forwarding address, and you should be able to bypass it. But from my experience it’s not only based solely on the billing address sadly.
I’ve only got an aging kindle, so was going to try to use the windows app, but that picked up my uk based account
Personally, I use Tenso, a forwarding service which provides you with a fake (but not illegal) Japanese address for free. I use a separate amazon JP account attached to a dedicated e-mail address and login to my Kindle app with that account while always using a VPN. I have purchased somewhere in the realm of 50 digital books so far without an issue. (I cross my fingers everyday that this does not change as reading manga and LNs in Japanese is my main hobby. 
)
I maintain a separate account for purchasing physical books and such as well.
Edit: Megumin beat me to it. 
thanks will try this later, figuring out how to use koohi to throw me a light novel that it super easy with my awesome WK lvl vocab
*cough level 5 (though was at lvl 10 last year)
These are all excellent tips if you are creating a new account or if your account is not flagged yet. Sadly it’s too late for my account and I’m not sure when it will go back to normal. Last time it took 2 years… and I know friends that have been in a similar position.
But yeah basically good practices would be:
I was at around lvl 20 in WK and I ended up resetting it. If you are struggling with the LNs you might want to go for Manga until you are more confident on your vocabulary. You can also use Kohii for that.
I find out that they are a good stepping stone. LNs can be overwhelming, as you see you are barely progressing if you are only able to read 1-2 pages because your head starts to hurt, while the manga is more on the light side.
I found 乙女ゲームの破滅フラグ to be a pretty easy read compared to some other LNs. (Sword Art Online and Danmachi (among some others) were much harder by comparison).
Depending on your current reading level, there may not be such a thing as a “super easy” LN. Don’t worry too much about it. Just throw yourself in and see how it goes.
By no means can you find every title available on Amazon JP with a US Kindle account. I tried looking for a few very popular LN series: Sword Art Online, Re:Zero, and Goblin Slayer, and not one of them was available.
Obviously this will be insufficient for many non-Japanese readers who want to read Japanese books (Note: These are the “you people” you referred to).
And then there’s the censoring concerns, like the No Game No Life light novel removals… they only remained up in the AmazonJP store.
Thank you. You have truly given me an insight into your people. 
It’s what I’m here for. I created a Bunpro account not to learn grammar, but solely to defend the ranks of non-native Japanese e-book readers across the world. Thank you for recognizing my efforts today. 
I use my Kindle and the Kindle app to read Japanese stuff all the time, but unfortunately I am based in Japan so can purchase easily, but even so I use a non-Japanese card to pay for Amazon most of the time.
Maybe people will disagree with me but I found Murakami Haruki extremely easy to read. His grammar and writing style is easy to understand and very western. Actually I have met a lot of Japanese people who don’t like his writing style because of this, and feel he doesn’t deserve the Nobel Prize for Literature like many non-Japanese believe he should win someday! Of course they will celebrate him like a national hero just as they did Ishiguro Kazuo if he does - haha. I read ねじまき鳥クロニクル before I had passed N2 for reference, but I have read that one in English too.
That might also be a good gateway. I mean, reading something you have already read and enjoyed in your native language. For me it was interesting to see how 1984 got translated to Japanese.
Otherwise, I have tried to more read difficult stuff like Edogawa Ranpo but failed pretty miserably.
I think Dragon Ball is one of the best manga to read if you want something simple and enjoyable to read. Great story, great characters and easy-ish vocabulary to pick up and get used to.