So far I've been avoiding this topic. Not out of any fear mind you, but rather because it's so big. It's the Star Wars universe. You can't go down an aisle of science fiction books without being buried by their sheer volume. Since I'm old school, I can remember sitting in the theater for Star Wars A New Hope as a kid, I like the old Star Wars books. Here are some great ones, The Han Solo Adventures, consisting of Han Solo At Stars' End, Han Solo's Revenge, and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy. In these stories we get to read about a younger Han Solo and Chewbacca as they do their best to make a living in the Corporate Sector.

When combined with A. C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy and L. Neil Smith's The Adventures of Lando Calrissian you can get a very complete picture of Han's early life as a smuggler and Lando's a rogue too.

Side note - Like I said, I saw Star Wars A New Hope during it's first run. I remember a sceen with Biggs Darklighter on Tatooine talking with Luke. Does anyone else remeber that scene or am I just imagining it?

Yeah, I was a huge Star Wars fan before the prequels and the horrible New Jedi Order series where everyone dies! :-P I still have fond memories of Star Wars, though, and I still like the original films. Those movies were definitely a large part of what got me reading as a kid. My favorites were:

The Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson
The Young Jedi Knight series also by Kevin J. Anderson
The Courtship of Princess Leia by Dave Wolverton (girlie, I know, but I am a girl)
The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn (really ANYTHING written by Zahn that features Thrawn is good.)
The Crystal Star
and
I, Jedi by Micheal A Stackpole

I read a lot more than that but those are the ones that still stand out in my mind.