I always do. I feel someone took the time to write them, I'm going to read them. (This is the first run through only of course.) They're not always great, but there's sometimes some very clever ones.
I follow them all. All the EQs tie together in a large overarching story and i dont like missing parts of it. First run through i observe the story 100%. The guilly 2099 eq is one of my favorites. i skip it on succeding exploration runs though.