I don't know I liked Prelude, Forward and the whole foundation series.
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Originally Posted by bill_mchale
I would strongly recommend not following that order. Of the items on that list, here are the ones I would recommend following the reading order.
Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire should be read in order. The first three are mysteries and refer to stuff that happen in earlier books, so reading one out of order could spoil the earlier book.
Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation need to be read in that order. Do not read Prelude to Foundation and Forward to Foundation first (I am not a big fan of them, but YMMV); they contain major spoilers that will eliminate a big surprise (originally intended by the author) that occurs in Second Foundation. Foundations's Edge and Foundation and Earth should be read after Second Foundation, but I don't see any major harm being done if you read Prelude and Forward before you read either of those two. I would also recommend reading at least up to Robots of Dawn in the Robot series before you move past the original Foundation Trilogy.
The empire books, (6,7 and 8) are essentially independent novels set in the period when the Galactic Empire was off the ground. Other than sharing a common background, they are essentially independent novels that may be read whenever. The same with the Robot stories.
Ok, so to summarize (as even I am getting confused).
Books 11, 12 and 13 read in order and before books 5, 9, 10, 14 and 15. Books 2, 3, 4, and 5 read in order, and read at least through 4 before books 9, 10 or 15.
Simple really 
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Bill |