Chronolgy
Have you ever approached an artist you are not familar with Chronolgicaly? Bit of an outside bet maybe. I hadn't read a Martin Amis novel at all and have been reading them in order. The next one to read is London Fields. I've also taken this approach to Music. I have been working back through Nick Cave albums, every few months getting a hold of the last one but this didn't start until I realised I had all the albums from Let Love In onwards.
My major project is now Tom Waits. I have Rain Dogs, Swordfish Trombones and Mule Variations but my friend lent me Closing Time, the debut and I then had the idea of going through the early albums one by one and seeing his progression from a fairly normal voiced singer to gravel-throated spoken word eccentric.
I may be alone in this, as I suspect I'm a bit younger that the average poster on this site (26), but I've found it quite rewarding so far. I'm on to Nighthawks at the Diner down (3rd album) and you can see a clear progression.
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Turn it around...
I don't think I've ever worked my way through a new (to me) artist, but when I first encountered The Flaming Lips with Yoshimi, I started working my way through their back catalogue in reverse order. So far, I've made it to Hit to Death in the Future Head, and I think taking this approach has made me like songs I may not have liked had I heard them without the later material as a reference point.
Like dude-1981, I can see the progression in their work, but coming from the other side.
And I've also been listening to a lot of Tom Waits over the last year, but I've taken a more scattergun aproach, picking an album at random every couple of months. Haven't found too many bum notes yet, though :)
Re Martin Amis
If you're reading him chronologically I would stop at London Fields - he becomes a bit of a self-parody after that (actually I would stop at Money but there you go).
Agreed, Ben
Money is great, and even more relevant now than it was in 1986. London Fields is a tough read for those who don't find lovable Cockernee scumbags engaging. Anything after that is so much rectal smoke blowing, with the exception of Experience which is an affecting autobiographical/meditational thing.