Books - where to start?

I have of course seen all the movies , but if I want to read some of the books too - where to start?

I would of course like to skip the bad ones and only read the good ones.
Are there some books which are more official than others (Lucas' stories)?

I especially like books where they are talking power and where the greatest Jedies/Siths are fighting one on one.

From this forum it seems that Luke will become the greastest of all the Jedies/Siths ever - any book you can recommend?

Do you know a good website for the Star Wars books? - please only suggest one or two of the best.

Are these books GREAT or are they just good because it is the universe we all know. Are some of these books at top level like fx "Dune" - one of the greatest Sci-fi books ever (I did read it - Cool story).
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank1.html

My favourite so far is Darth Bane: Path of Destruction and if you are only going to read the books, and no comics, then i believe that that is the first one, so I would say start there if you want to start from the beginning. And in my opinion, don't read past ROTJ, NJO sucks to me.

I actually love comics too - are the Star Wars comics great?
I have taken a look in some of them - and the drawings are not so good in my opinion.

But if they are good I will read the comics too - any you can recommend?

How do I know if the books are before or after ROTJ?
NJO - hmmm - shortening for what?
If "after" (NJO?) sucks- then I will miss the story of how Luke becomes the best ever.

By the sounds of it, you'd want to read some of the first (in regards to chronology) comics out there, so I'd start with the Tales of the Jedi series. You can access all of them from swtimline.ru, you should start with The Golden Age of the Sith, then The Fall of the Sith Empire, Ulic Quel-Droma and The Beast Wars of Onderon, The Saga of Nomi Sunrider, The Freedon Nadd Uprising, Dark Lords of the Sith, The Sith War, and finally Redemption - my personal favorite.

In terms of powerful Force people going at it, or something to that effect, start with the Dark Nest, or possibly the start of the New Jedi Order.

In terms of great storytelling however, start with the Thrawn trilogy.

btw where can I get a book?

Originally posted by Antaeus
How do I know if the books are before or after ROTJ?
NJO - hmmm - shortening for what?
If "after" (NJO?) sucks- then I will miss the story of how Luke becomes the best ever.

It should say what era the book is from.

NJO= New Jedi Order

If you wanna read the NJO, go ahead, personally though, I didn't find them very well written or very good.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Anyone you like, General G?

I really like these:

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
Labyrinth(?) of Evil
Shatterpoint
Yoda: Dark Rendevouz
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth vader

Those are my favourites.

Originally posted by General G
I really like these:

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
Labyrinth of Evil
Shatterpoint

Those are my favourites.

Argee with those three. If any of them should be ranked on the best sci-fi books, it should be Shatterpoint without a doubt.