Star Wars Books - A Lot of Beginner Questions

[Cod]

I was browsing through BN yesterday and realized there are a ton of Star Wars books on the shelf. Now, as a fan of the movies and a follower of The Clone Wars show, I thought the books may be of interest to me.

My first question is where to start? Do I need to go in a specific order or can I just pick one up and go from there? I thought about getting one from The Old Republic series, but wasn't sure which since there are three in the series (Revan, Deceived, Fatal Alliance). Do I need to read them in any order to understand what's going on? And how do I know what order they're in (by publication date?)? Or can I just pick up Deceived, read it, and then go to Fatal Alliance and still understand what's going on? After reading The Old Republic, do I need to stay in the same era of books before moving on to another? Or can I just bounce around? I also thought about picking up a book from The Clone Wars series, but figured it was best to start in an earlier era.

Sorry for the onslaught of questions, but I've never "jumped" into a series such a vast collection.Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

[Hepth]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thrawn_Trilogy

was basically the first written and comes soon after return of the jedi.
After that there are a ton that follow in a sort of series-like order.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_books#The_Truce_at_Bakura
I'd read from:

The Thrawn Trilogy

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (9 ABY) (A)
Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn (9 ABY) (A)
The Last Command by Timothy Zahn (9 ABY) (A)

TO

Survivor's Quest

Fool's Bargain by Timothy Zahn (22 ABY) (E)
Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn (22 ABY) (A)

pretty much all of them. Then you can skip down to The New Jedi Order and read that series and everything after it. (First book written by R. A. Salvatore (Forgotten Realms))

there's a LOT to read, but there's usually something important in each series that isn't in other books (Like the Death of BLAH, birth of BLAH, etc).

I haven't read any of the Old Republic stuff or any of the young-anakin stuff.

 

[TheShrike]

This Wikipedia page lists all the books in chronological order:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_wars_books

I have lots of Star Wars books I no longer want that I'm selling on Ebay, here are my listings http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/olorinoflorien/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3686

I have others that aren't up yet either, all assuming that you're interested and that I'm allowed to mention such things here.

As the previous poster mentioned, The Thrawn trilogy is probably the best place to start.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I read the Thrawn Trilogy when I was a kid and remember enjoying it but don't remember much about it. From what I read not all authors use the material from it in their novels, possibly even only a few of them do and selectively at that.

 

[Cod]

Thanks for all the advice. I started reading the Lost Tribe of Sith #1 this morning since all the Lost Tribe of Sith books are free for the Kindle. I think I'll probably order the first book from The Thrawn Trilogy this weekend.

Thanks again.