It's one of the very few books that I own that I bought new. I bought the series on paperback. Then we decided to get rid of most of our stuff and move aboard the sailboat... so I bought the series for the kindle as well (paperbacks didn't fare well on the boat, I'm SO glad I didn't take these!
I started reading the series 16+ years ago when there were just a couple of books and LOVED them. Book... 3? I think really just put me off for some reason and I couldn't get into it. I forgot about the series until a couple of years ago when it got brought up again and I devoured the entire series. I read them all again (plus the little bonus type books on the kindle) while I was on the boat.
Give me some more authors to check out!