To Read in the Order Written or the Order of the Story

I've just started rereading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (and now being finished by Brandon Sanderson).  Robert Jordan's first novel in the series written was the Eye of the World, but the first in the history of that world, then it would be New Spring, the prequel.  So I started with New Spring...in fact usually whenever I reread a series that has prequels in it, I start there.  I think that it's because it is how the author intended it to be. 

Of course one series that I don't start with that way is the Dune series.  That is because the prequels were written by Frank Herbert's son and not him.  So the prequels aren't directly connected.  It's like they aren't cannon, and so they are interesting to read, but not the real start of the series. 

Now, New Spring is interesting because it started out as a novella for the Robert Silverberg anthology Legends.  Then Jordan fleshed it out a little and published it on its own.  The same thing happened with Terry Goodkind and Debt of Bones.  It too is a prequel of the Sword of Truth series.

Sometimes it seems like authors use the prequel to add stuff that they haven't talked about in the first couple of books, but have in the latest ones.  So it looks like the idea or theme was in there the whole time.  I dislike and like that at the same time.  It just depends on the way that it is handled.  Some things are very witty and funny, and sometimes its just dumb or redundant.  Almost everything about reading is subjective.