I think that was originally my plan--go in chronological order, from the Old Republic to the New Jedi Order. I opted not to because it'd be like watching the prequel movies before the originals--there's stuff you would miss in the backstories not knowing how the characters wind up years later. That, and no doubt as soon as I reached, say, the Empire era, sure enough SW would publish a book back in the Republic era and I'd have to backtrack.
Going in publication order, yeah, I jump back and forth in the timeline here and there (it's only in general order of release date that I'm going after all), but at least I won't miss anything.
