Hi,
Okay, so I have loved the Doctor since the mid 80's when I stumled upon Tom Baker battling space bugs in the wee hours of the morning on Detroit PBS. Of course that's the doc that stole my heart. I have been a tv purist when it comes to the doc, save a 25th aniversary book and a couple comics. But now, with the Doctor back in tv land and listening to way too many podshocks, I feel a great urge to start reading the books.
Where to start!!??
Sounds like the 8th is a good spot but the 1st book is going for 50 bucks, is it worth it?

The books are a very varied beast, ranging widely in quality, genre, etc. so I'm going to be boring and ask what sort of thing you like generally before giving specific recs. And do you want to get into the (wonderfully mind-bending) arcs, or do you want some good standalones?

If the "first" Eight book you refer to is Terrance Dicks's "The Eight Doctors", then you really don't want to be shelling out more than cover price for it, really (and even then it's overpriced). It's Not Very Good.

Best place to start is probably the EBooks page on the official site. A lot of the out of print novels are up there for free, including Human Nature (which is adapted into a two part episode in S3), Nightshade (by Unquiet Dead/Idiot's Lantern writer Mark Gatiss) and The Well Mannered War by S3 writer Gareth Roberts.

If you haven't seen S3 yet though, I'd hold off on Human Nature, as wonderful as it is. Otherwise, I agree with Nuallain on the eBooks - fantastic. Also, I really liked The Stone Rose, but it's a tad shippy for Ten/Rose.

So far I've managed to read The Clockwise Man, The Feast Of The Drowned and The Last Dodo, the latter I've enjoyed the most.

S3 just started on CBC (I Love Canada) so spoilers, no thanks.

I love mind-bending arcs! The mind bendier the better. Scary, warped, funny, that's what I like. Keys to Time and the Matrix(the doc was the first to go there, not Keanu) are some episodes of Tom Baker that really stick in my mind.

Oooh, are those at stateside yet? I know I could probably get them through Amazon, but the local Borders has been good in getting the 9/Rose and 10/Rose books in.

Right, then, I am going to recommend you the Faction Paradox/War arc. This was a foregone conclusion, because I love it beyond measure, but we shall pretend otherwise.

See, before the Daleks wiped out the Time Lords, there was a completely different Time War. And it was great.

Humanoid TARDISes! Time travelling voodoo cults! Conceptual entities that oh bugger am I in one of those forum things again? sod that for a game of soldiers, I'm off interpose themselves within your local culture! The Celestial Intervention Agency gone completely batshit! An unknown Enemy against which the Time Lords are fighting in the future! The Doctor's own timeline at risk! Entire human cultures turned into weapons! Searing condemnations of the Doctor's failure to overthrow evil regimes here on present day Earth!

OK, the last one of those is possibly less exciting to most people than the rest, but I like it.

Start with Alien Bodies (no prior knowledge needed beyond the fact that the Doctor's companion at this point is called Sam -- imagine a generic young blonde girl companion a la Rose without any Billie to flesh it out and very uneven writing), if you can get hold of it, then you want Unnatural History, Interference (a two book epic crossing over with the Three era), and The Taking of Planet Five. The last two books to wrap it up are The Shadows of Avalon and The Ancestor Cell, but both of these represent something of a decline.

mmmmm faction/paradox war - that gets me all giggly inside. I will start there! Thanks Ionlylurkhere

What exactly is the name of the first book in the paradox war arc?

Alien Bodies.

I'm probably being really evil to you here, because they're doubtless hugely expensive these days.

well that one is coming up about 20 bucks. Way better then some. I will be sure to let you know just how evil you are, especially if I get sucked into these books

And if you like those, there's a line of seperate FP books and audios. They're pretty good. More info here.

I'm not sure but The Last Dodo is Ten/Martha