Star Wars Novel Reading Order

This is mostly just something I'm doing for some of my friends that are just getting into Star Wars novels, but I figured I'd post it here so anyone can see it. If you're a novice to the Star Wars Expanded Universe who just happened to find your way here via a misguided google search, feel free to take (or leave) my advice. Alternately, if you're a veteran Star Wars EU fan, feel free to curse my name for leaving The Glove of Darth Vader off the list.

Most Star Wars books can be read in any order you want, because a lot of books are standalones and a lot of series are self-contained. That's not to say they don't refer to one another, just that you (usually) shouldn't worry about not reading a book because you haven't read all the books "before" it.

The exception to this is that all of the books from the "New Jedi Order" series onward really ought to be read in strict timeline order. Other than that you can (mostly) go wild, but I think what follows is a fairly good order. I'm dividing up the reading order into "phases" just so you can understand why I'm giving you the books in this order.

Phase One: Stover
Phase 1 consists of books written by Matthew Stover. I think Stover's one of the best Star Wars writers, and I think these books will help you get a little bit of a flavor for the Star Wars Universe. I'm recommending that you read Stover before Zahn but you don't have to. You can skip him if you really want or read him later.

Shatterpoint - This novel about Mace Windu is set during the prequel trilogy, between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
Revenge of the Stih Novelization (optional) - I'm making this optional since if you've seen the movie you know the story, but the book is way better than the movie.
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor - Skipping ahead, this is set about a year after Return of the Jedi. It's all about Luke, but it picks up some of the threads from Shatterpoint (you'll see). Also, even though it was written 17 years after the Thrawn Trilogy (see below), it sets it up kind of nicely.

Phase Two: Zahn
The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn is basically the foundation for all of the other books after it. Zahn was the first author allowed to write books set after the movies, and so he's responsible for a lot of the characters and history post-Jedi. A word of caution: Since he's writing in 1991, and the prequels weren't released until 199-2005, Zahn makes up some stuff about the Clone Wars and the Jedi Order that later got contradicted.

The Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) - Set a few years after Return of the Jedi. Basically sets up the post-Jedi EU.
Hand of Thrawn (Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future) Ten years after the Thrawn Trilogy, and continues some of the threads.
Survivor's Quest - A few years after that. It continues some more of those threads...
Outbound Flight - Okay, this jumps waaaay back to the prequel trilogy, before Attack of the Clones. It's a prequel to the rest of those books and it finally gives the backstory that's hinted at in them. It also kind of sort of hints at the New Jedi Order stuff...

Phase Three: The New Jedi Order and beyond
This part's simple. This is the "continuing story" of the Star Wars universe. Unlike the rest of the timeline, the New Jedi Order series and the stuff after it is supposed to be read in order. You might want to start by reading Rogue Planet by Greg Bear, which is during the prequel era and introduces some important plot points. After that, though, it's all in order: Read Vector Prime, by R. A. Salvatore, and from then on just read the next book in the timeline, skipping the e-books (unless you really want to read them). You can find the timeline in the front of most Star Wars books, or you could just look at the Wikipedia list here.

Other Stuff
Aside from my advice that the New Jedi Order and what follows should be read in order, pretty much anything is fair game whenever you feel like it. If you've read all the Stover and Zahn stuff I recommended but you'd rather not commit to the 19 books of the NJO, and you want something a little less monstrous to read, look around and see what else is out there that sounds interesting to you. There's tons of books, and I haven't even mentioned the comics yet. Well, now I have.