[quote name='Tsel']I'm trying to collect all the Batman graphic novels. What's the chronological order to read them in? I don't want to be jumping around especially with the whole Batman RIP/Battle for the Cowl and all of those storylines mixing things up.[/QUOTE]
Chronological reading order for Batman in general is next to impossible thanks to Year One setting a new status quo. Most of the early Batman tales are just completely out of the picture. You can pick those up in chronological order in the Batman Chronicles collections. Select authors and artists from pre-Year One also are collected in the "Legends of the Dark Knight: [Name]" and "Tales of the Batman: [Name]" series.
I think the only pre-Year One things that some try to fit into the current continuity are the stores collected in Strange Apparitions and whatever Grant Morrison decides to pull out of his ass for his modern Batman books.
The other thing you will have problems with is not everything has a definitive point. A lot of stuff from the "Legends of the Dark Knight" comic series (not to be confused with the books I mentioned above) take place in the early years of Batman. And a lot of these trades that collect the "early years" stories of Batman are OOP and are obscenely expensive, but it seems like DC is slowly making their way around to reprint them.
The other thing is a lot of Batman stories are essentially Elseworlds tales. Those have no continuity. Some Batman books look like they could fit into continuity but there are things that also take them out of continuity, like Azzarello's "Joker" which is always on "must read" lists. And then not only do you have the books spun off of the style of The Animated Series, but Dini also has a book with art in that style that may or may not be in our regular Batman continuity.
There are also what amount to trade anthologies which you can't read in order unless you read one issue, put the book down, and come back to it 6 months down the line for the next issue. Stuff like "Officer Down" spans a beginning-middle-and later career of Batman/Gordon. There's a trade called Batman: International that's three different international Batman stories, all perfectly serviceable, but I don't think any of them fit into any particular point in continuity.
Plus you have to really ask yourself - is ALL of Batman worth collecting and reading? There are some bad Batman stories out there. There's that whole stretch of Murder/Fugitive and then War Games/Crimes that was written by names such as Brubaker, Rucka, and Dixon, but you rarely see those on any lists of "must read" Batman books, just because the quality isn't there even with talented authors. Some books are just "there" and you don't miss anything by not reading them. IMO I think books like the No Man's Land and Knightfall series are only so popular because they were a big deal spanning so many issues of so many series during a time when comic books were an in-thing - not necessarily because they were the best Batman tales quality wise.
Then you hit The New 52 and its a giant question mark of what things are still even in the continuity. People seriously question whether things like No Man's Land and Knightfall are in continuity because certain characters just don't exist in the New 52 anymore.
But if you're just looking for something like a reading order for Grant Morrison's modern books, there are websites for that:
This should be of some help as far as Morrison is concerned:
http://comicsastonish.com/2012/01/04/a-readers-guide-to-grant-morrisons-batman/
Here are some other Batman reading order sites:
http://www.batmantrades.com/ (I don't think the site has been updated since half way through Morrison's turn on Batman)
http://tplist.millarworld.net/batman.html
http://www.tradereadingorder.com/character/batman/
IMO You'd be best off looking at some lists for essential Batman stories then start there. After that, look at
www.batmantrades.com and read about the books, see if they sound interesting. Then Google the book titles and look for reviews. Usually you can find some on Amazon and Good Reads, but also on blogs and comic book websites. Make your list of what you want, and start hunting from there.
. About how may boxes did they have 10, 30, 50? did they have any 'older' books like 35 cent cover price?
