Haha. No worries, Lisa, I loved #3 ^_^
To me, the "classic" books would have to be the first ten or so, and then the "golden age" of the series (I'm totally with Jen on this one) started around 12 or so and lasted through 26. After that, it starts to feel like a different series entirely, and before that, it's like Katherine and Michael were still getting their sea-legs.