I am SO far behind the SOTA, Literally and figuratively... Options

[kevyn668]

Here's the scan:

I haven't bought a new SR book in over a year. I've been on board since '89 with SR1 and kept up pretty well through SR2. Then I fell outta the loop. Being a poor collage student w/o a group will do that to ya...

SR3wise I have the BBB, SR Comp, The CC, M&M, MitS, and Matrix (stupid impulse buy--I've never played a decker and odds are slim I will anytime soon)

Here's what I need:

I don't have a real life group. The old group I rolled with mostly played That Other Game with a smattering of SR, TMNT&OS, and some Heros Unlimited. It was on and off while I was at school and then really "off" when I took a job in another city. We got back into SR briefly agian when I returned home recently (this influenced my Matrix purchase) but have since drifted apart.

The only place I get to play is here.

I love being able to contribute to thread discusions and such in a useful manner (which is rare, I know, but I like to try :)). What I need to know what books should I break down and buy?

For Thread Talk:

I'm a pretty smart fellow (and modest, too ;)) so I have a fairly good grip on whats going in the 6th world but I like details. SoNA? DotSW? YotC? RA:S? SoE? Blood in the Boardroom? Super Tuesday? T:WL? T:AL? Threats: any? etc...

For Welcome to Shadows Playing:

Which of the previously listed "Thread Talk" books are most useful? In addition, SOTA 63? SOTA 64? MJLBB? Rigger 3 seems out for the same reasons as Threats: Matrix but I could be conviced otherwise.

I mostly play light sam/ merc types with the occasional phys ad tossed into the mix. Generaly because I've see the awakends that my fellow DSers crunch out and I, quite frankly, can't hold a torch to the numbers that are generated (I think I can create a pretty good background but the fact remains, if I play the mage there's a chance that my inexperience will get either my character or the other PCs flatlined. So I don't go down that road.)

As a last note:

I am not rich. Big surprise, right? So I can't just go out and buy all of these at once--despite my strong desire to tell little kids at the gaming store I can do just that ("Look at all those books kid. Guess what, I can buy ALL OF THEM IF I WANT TO!! MU-HA-HA-HA-HA!!)

Thanks for your help!

-Kevyn