Reading Order for Marvel

I've started purchasing the Civil War trade paperbacks (J Michael Strazinski wrote the prequel, which attracted my attention), and was wondering if there is a particular order I should read them in? After mentioning this to a fellow forum poster, they then informed me Civil War is just one in a larger sort of "metaseries" (my term, not theirs). So, apart from Civil War, what series should I read, and in what order (both the series themselves and the trade paperbacks within the series)?

What order to read Civil War in? Wow .. how about I explain LOST in the next 10 seconds

Civil War was freaking massive. Wikipedia has a pretty good article - skip ahead to the reading order for single issues, which should give you an idea of reading order.

As for what to read ... umm ...

Definitely read New Avengers
Anything specifically titles as "Civil War" (eg: "Civil War: X-Men" 1-4, "Civil War: Front Line" - Front Line is especially worth reading. It's the story of Ben Urich, a reporter who used to work at the Bugle with Peter Parker, and his reporting of the events of the Super Hero Civil War. It set a standard which Marvel has followed with "World War Hulk: Front Line" and especially "Siege: Embedded")

Other than that, stick with the books that you normally read. Unless you've got a few weeks to put aside full time for this, there's almost no way you can read the whole thing, and a whole lot wasn't really that good. The X-Men stuff is pretty unrelated (Civil War was all about Super Hero registration. The X-Men claimed that since M-Day, all 198 mutants were already registered with the US Government, so it didn't really apply to them).

AAAAAAND, if you want to make life really complex, the various Cosmic-level characters in the Marvel U. were all tied up in the ANNIHILATION crossover, which I thought was waaaaaay better

-Chris

Still waiting for the "Lost" explaination here

There's no way to explain LOST in one line.

Civil War was easy. Some Superheroes agreed with Government registration, and some didn't , and hence they fought.

Some really good stuff came out of Civil War, but since then the Marvel U. has gone back to the days when events didn't have to include EVERY BOOK IN THE UNIVERSE.

I'm particularly enoying SHADOWLAND right now - Daredevil has gone nuts.

And as always, I live for my Marvel Cosmic stuff, so I'm enjoying THE THANOS INITIATIVE.

-Chris