I stopped reading once I reached that New Jedi Order series, made it thru the first book and half of second. It was really bad writing, and I never much cared for the Luke, Han, Leia characters. Yea the aliens who came from outside the galaxy was very interesting, I think they are bringing back that concept with the new trilogy movie and the newer Thrawn books are hinting at it.
I'll check out the X-Wing books, never read those either.