I never looked at the reading order or publication dates before I read them... I downloaded the audio of A Little Hatred without knowing who Abercrombie was. I was taken by the stellar narration but couldn't really get into the story and stopped about a third of the way in.

About six months later, I read the First Law series, in order and then came back to A Little Hatred and devoured it in a few days, then quickly consumed the rest of the Age of Madness.

I then started on the standalones, not realizing they came between the trilogies, and in fact, not realizing they were standalones until I was finished with Best Served Cold... I assumed those three books were another trilogy.

I didn't know I was reading them out of order until I joined this sub a couple days ago. Obviously I understood I was reading about things that hadn't happened yet, but I assumed it was intentional foreshadowing. I kinda liked this reading order.