http://www.avclub.com/article/your-guid ... rse-207005
Primer is The A.V. Club’s ongoing series of beginners’ guides to pop culture’s most notable subjects: filmmakers, music styles, literary genres, and whatever else interests us—and hopefully you. This installment: The Star Wars Expanded Universe. Fair warning: This piece reveals several plot points from the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
It's a fairly long article but this is the important part for someone like Teaos, who wants to jump in but doesn't know where;
The essentials:
1. The Zahn trilogy: Heir To The Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command (novels): The easiest entry point into the series, and one of the most enjoyable.
2. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (television show): Yeah, it’s an animated show for kids, but it’s surprisingly good (and mature). The female characters are far more fleshed-out; Anakin can act; Jar Jar is infinitely less annoying. And the clone storytelling is so much superior to the prequels that it is laughable.
3. Knights Of The Old Republic, I and II (video game): Generally considered to be the best Star Wars video game. The player can choose to be male or female in both; canonically, KOTOR I has a male protagonist, and KOTOR II a female. And in the immortal words of Rowan Kaiser, the former is “an idealized Star Wars adventure,” while the second is “a loving deconstruction of that idea.” In both, the story is thousands of years before the films, when the Jedi Knights were vast in number. (Also, if you’re playing KOTOR II, you will likely need this mod.)
4. Star Wars Tales, Vol. 1-4 (comic books): Embrace the infinities.
5. The Complete Star Wars Anthology or The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Soundtrack (music): You’re going to need something to listen to while reading all these books.
