So I've been wanting to get into the Ultimate Universe of Marvel for a while now, and now I'm done. I just read about some incredible things happening in the ultimate universe, like Mr. Fantastic becoming Doctor Doom, Spider-Man dying along with Daredevil, Magneto and a whole bunch of other characters. I really want to read all of this, but I've never read a single page of Ultimate Comics, so where the hell do I start?

So I've done some google-ing, and I've read that there are 4 "cycles" in the Ultimate U, the first one being some sort of Super Soldier Serum Cold War, ending with an event called Ultimatum, that everyone apparently hates. The second cycle ending with the death of spider-man, and the next ending with Cataclysm. What's the best "cycle"?

I'm curious about this too now that the Universe has ended. Now it's more like one complete story rather than a comic line to follow.

What I'd really like to know more about is a reading order. I know to start with the main four books Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, but now the question is how far to read each series and when to read the event miniseries?
What's a rough timeline to read and follow to go through the saga of the Ultimate Universe and get the big picture from start to finish?