I'm listening to the podcast, and I'm getting to the book part.
My 2 cents:
I read Dead Beat first. And I enjoyed the hell out of it. Of course, I didn't know what everything was, but it was still a fun read. This summer, I went back to read the series, starting with Storm Front and then going through the rest, in order (unless, I guess, you count the short stories, which were sort of in order for me, sort of not I guess, err... I don't know, whatever, they were fun.)
Anyway, I finished PG and the Something Borrowed recently. I also re-read DB, and that was still pretty fun.
But I see what you're doing in the podcast. And it's a good idea. Especially with the series coming out in a few days.