So I've finally finished watching all of the Star Wars movies.  I'm thinking about checking out to see Star Wars books.  The problem is I don't know where to start.  There's so many books out there on this series.  Any suggestions?  thanks! 

Start with the ones by Timothy Zahn Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command.

My son and I both agree that the Timothy Zahn trilogy is a good place to start reading Star Wars Books since you just finished the movies.  They pick up shortly after the last movie.  From there you can go forward or back OR you can read about some of the periferal characters like Wedge Antilles or Bouny Hunters.  The real key is to read the books that are in a series and not try to read them all in chronological order.

Zahn's Thrawn trilogy gets a "thirded" from me.

Then I recommend the Xwing series by Stackpole and Allston

After that, it is pretty wide open. However, I do recommend reading older stuff [published that is] before the new stuff. The last couple of series, New Jedi Order, Dark Nest, Legacy of the Force and now the Fate of the Jedi, all depend on knowing some background about characters.

For background info, go with the Jedi Academy trilogy by Kevin Anderson. "I, Jedi" by Stackpole and the Corellian Trilogy by Roger Allen.

Courtship of Princess Leia is a fun read and it gets referenced way later. by Dave Wolverton.

As for prequel stuff, read the novelizations of the movies. Much better than the movies, especially Revenge of the Sith. That book almost made me cry. Then I recommend finding a timeline [in most new star wars books] and reading the prequel stuff in chronological order.

Just be aware, some of the stuff is good, so is REALLY good and some is just plain drek. And you've got a solid year or so of reading ahead of you :-) So pace yourself and space it between other books, otherwise you'll burn out.

Thanks for the suggestions...I looked up the books and I was overwhelmed about just how many that are out there.  With other series I would start with the first book but I don't think I can do that with this series...lol.

Thanks Derrick!    Definantly do that!

My first Star Wars book was the Han Solo Trilogy.  It got me hooked.  I run into this problem all the time too, where to start with a new series.  You can't really go wrong though.  If you start with some of these suggestions and use the chronology in the beginning of all the newer books to make sure you don't jump too far ahead you should be fine.  I think the X Wing series was a great one.

I love Brian Daley's classic Han Solo trilogy.  The short-story collections that tied into the original trilogy (Tales of the Bounty Hunters, Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, and Tales from Jabba's Palace) were also pretty fun.