gizzy2000 said:

To be fair, I've never read a Star Wars book before (except for the 1976 "Star Wars" book based on Lucas's script, but that doesn't really count) so maybe if I was actually interested in the EU I'd feel differently about all this.

Not necessarily. I like -- even love -- a sizeable portion of the EU, but I still reject the official canon nonsense. Hell, it's probably my love for those stories which is why I reject the canon nonsense; I wouldn't be able to enjoy the Tales of the Jedi comics, the Marvel comics, the Thrawn Trilogy, etc. if I had to reinterpret them into fitting the PT and the prequelized junk that followed.