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Hmm, I only read the APs if I plan to run them. I dont read them like a traditional novel or story but as a blueprint for a game I am going to run. If I was not going to run a game I am not sure I would enjoy them like I would with say a novel. It is possible but I am not exactly seeing eye to eye with ya.
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I love the APs, I'd say easily half of the ones I own are never going to get played, but I keep my subscription up nonetheless just to read through them. Sometimes I get inspiration for use in other games, sometimes I just enjoy reading them.
If I ever hit a module or adventure that isn't a good read, it's usually a good sign to me that I'll not enjoy running it either (e.g. nameless dungeons full of combat encounter after combat encounter) - and lets not forget the serialized fiction in the AP books, either!
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I'd recommend starting with a first instalment and seeing if you like it. I find the high level modules a little too stat intensive for a pleasurable read. However, I read every issue 1-4 of each AP, despite the expectation of never running them.
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At this point, I have more APs than I will probably ever get to run. I really enjoy reading them. The adventure part of an AP volume is about two-thirds of the page count. The rest are support articles: gazetteers, bestiaries, magic items, NPCs, detailed deity articles, organizations, fiction, etc.
I read the APs for the plot. I also use them to nab individual maps and/or encounters to drop into other games.
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CotCT was good to read as a novel. it had those cinematic cut scenes that I wish they would bring back, for when your brain is tired of running 4 PCs through your head. Also it focused on such a small area, that it described things in better detail than other APs.
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I enjoy reading them. I bought the hardcover Rise of the Runelords book just to read on a road trip.
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The Pathfinder Legends audio drama series sounds like it would be what your looking for DeathBecomesus.
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Personally, I love reading the AP's just for fun. Fun to imagine running them as a DM, fun to imagine working through them as a player, different strategies one might try etc., fun just to see how professional game designers put a world together. So for me, a lot of the fun is trying to reverse engineer the adventures to see what design decisions were made and try to figure out why. And there's always the possibility of stealing particularly well done pieces from an AP to drop into my own campaign!
Creative Director
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Making our adventures actually entertaining and fun to just read is one of the most important parts of my job. In fact, at times, I think it's THE most important, because if something's not fun to read... why would someone read it? And if someone doesn't read an adventure, they're certainly not going to run it.
I subscribed to Dungeon magazine from issue 1, and while I ran a lot of adventures from those pages, I suspect the total of adventures I actually ran from Dungeon is close to 1 percent overall. Maybe 2 or 3 percent. But the ones I read? Much higher... not 100% but close.
Reading adventures and not running them is, as far as I am concerned, a perfectly good use of an adventure and justifies the money spent. At the very least, they're enjoyable to read. But even if you don't run an adventure, the ideas it sparks will help you run your own games. There's not really a better way to expose yourself to new ideas and concepts as far as creating your own adventures goes than reading adventures written by others.
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I wouldn't read it as a novel, but more like a magazine. Right now I've read more AP's then played.
Some of my favorites to read through have been RotRL (played it also), Serpents Skull (have heard this is not so fun to play later on though), and Reign of Winter.
What GreyWolfLord said.
I like reading them, but mostly for the support articles on deities, new monsters, gazetteers on locations, etc. The earlier entries are definitely easier to read than the later ones; I always feel that the 6th volume comes across as disjointed, between having to put in large statblocks and a reduction in thematically appropriate high CR challenges, leading to inclusion of enemies and monsters that sometimes don't fit the rest of the AP.
I can absolutely recommend Wrath of the Righteous as a read. I have read it (but not played it), and I quite enjoyed it as a read.
I have not been able to regularly play in quite some time, but I have read most of the adventure paths. I have to give some major props to Paizo for making their adventures enjoyable to read even if you aren't playing said adventure. In my case it has been nice to keep in touch with the hobby that I love, even if I can't sit at a table with a group and play very often at all.
I love Golarion as a setting, and reading through the APs give the setting this nice "slowly unfolding" quality that most RPG settings don't have.
Anyway. Put me in the 'APs are good reads as a read' column.
Edit:
I'll add my personal favorite AP reads. In no particular order: Wrath of the Righteous, Carrion Crown, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Jade Regent, and Legacy of Fire
I definitely enjoy reading them, even having not played most. I find the most recent ones the most enjoyable, actually; RoW, WotR, and the current Mummy's Mask are really fun, because the designers have been taking a lot of interesting and different approaches to things.
CoCT is a pretty good one, too, in spite of the 3.5 mechanics. Even some of the others that I don't enjoy quite as much as full APs have several gems in the series- for instance, I'm currently rereading Carrion Crown, and while I still don't feel that the overall storyline holds together very well (it feels much more like a very loose framework of otherwise self-contained adventures), there are a couple that are just very well done in their own right- Haunting of Harrowstone and Wake of the Watcher, in particular.
I find that I enjoy reading the adventures more than the fiction, actually (many of the fiction stories I still haven't read at all.)
i recommend Reign of Winter, Skull & Shackles, Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition or Shattered Star are all great reading and have fun extras to read, as someone that reads ALOT every day i find the APs and especially the campaign setting books fun to read:)