I have pushed myself repeatedly to love Discworld. It should be everything I love and I have tried and stopped a few times. However, I have read the following books and here are my thoughts:
Colour of Magic - Adequate, but not great. I read it because it is the first one.
Mort - Well, I loved it until about 2/3 or so. It fizzled to me.
Small Gods - reading it now and halfway through…
Small Gods is an immediate classic to me, one of the finest, funniest, best novels I’ve read. It’s in my top 10 at this point and I read a pretty good amount. It’s amazing. I’m a Christian and honestly, it almost helps to have religious beliefs. It’s a great book and I’m recommending to all my friends. I have several quotes highlighted on my Kindle.
From here, you should read Soul Music. After that, Hogfather. Then you have a choice: Ramtops or Ankh-Morpork.
The Ramtops gives you witches, elves, vampires, opera, the meaning of family and the true cost and responsibility of power. And Greebo.
Ankh-Morpork gives you police procedurals, lost kings, dragons, golems, newspapers, stamp-collecting, finance and Pterry committing Literature. And Knobby.
Once you pick a path, we can guide you to the gems and necessaries. Good luck, you lucky bastard. You get to read these for the first time!
You read Color of Magic, but didn’t read the sequel? You gotta read The Light Fantastic, just to finish out the story. I liked it a lot more than the first one.
Then again, I loved Mort, so maybe I’m not the best guide.
Small Gods is generally regarded as one of the best, and is a very good place to start with the series. The other two you mentioned are very near the beginning of the run, and while they have potential, Pratchett hadn’t really hit his stride yet.
As for where to go from here, it helps to realize that Discworld isn’t one series, but several different (though connected) ones. Most of them fall, broadly, into four or five broad lines: There are stories about Rincewind and the other wizards, stories about the witches (including the Tiffany Aching subseries, another good place to start), stories about DEATH and his granddaughter Susan, and stories about Commander Vimes and the Ankh-Morpork city watch (plus some set in Ankh-Morpork that aren’t directly about the Watch, including the three Moist von Lipvig books).
The wizards are all a bit buffoonish, and their books mostly revolve around Rincewind bumbling into adventures that he’d really rather not be on, while the rest of the wizards do their best to pretend that nothing’s happening. Pratchett’s witches tend to be extremely pragmatic sorts, who do what needs to be done, which sometimes but surprisingly seldom involves magic. You’ve read the first of the DEATH books already; the later ones are similar, but flesh out (if you’ll pardon the expression) his character and personality more, and he often ends up being the only one available to oppose some cosmic-level threat to the World. The Watch books are mostly straight police procedurals, albeit set in a world where dwarves and trolls are commonplace, and werewolves, vampires, golems, and dragons are not unknown.
The good news is the two novels you found wanting are pretty early in the publication order. OPinions vary, but for IMHO the best books stretch from Pyramids to Nightwatch (with some clunkers in between). So I’d say read Pyramids next as it’s the most similar to Small Gods and excellent in its own right.
According to this excellent guide if you read Guards! Guards!, Equal Rites and Moving Pictures you’ll have finished off the starter novels for the main lines. Then go for the line you like the best.
I’d read Wyrd Sisters next. And then Lords and Ladies. And then Lords and Ladies again. (Ramtops) (Yes, I know Witches Abroad comes between Wyrd Sisters and Lords and Ladies. I stand by my comment.)
Yes. The Light Fantastic picks up literally seconds later.
The Reading Guide is…adequate. I wouldn’t, for example, recommend Equal Rites. Pterry was still trying to work shit out when that was written. Better to start the Witches series with Wyrd Sisters.
The ones you can skip completely, IMO are Pyramids (but the opening is excellent), Sourcery, Eric, Unseen Academicals, and Monsterous Regiment. The rest are excellent to Oh My God!
Alternately, you could start the Witches books via the Tiffany Aching books (starting with The Wee Free Men). Though you’d probably want to go back and read the other witch books before finishing the Aching series (almost certainly, before The Shepherd’s Crown).
I mostly agree with silenus, in that I was rather underwhelmed by Pyramids, Unseen Academicals, and Eric, and Sourcery isn’t anything special, either. Monstrous Regiment, however, I actually thought was pretty good (albeit very different from most of the Discworld books-- Much less humorous, for a start).
MR was ok, I guess, but I figured out the twist before I even opened the book. That took a lot of the intrigue out of it. But I must admit I regularly declare things to be An Abomination Unto Nuggan.
I liked Pyramids :(. I know I’m the only one. The Hogfather is my favorite Discworld book followed by Small God’s and then all the Vimes books in order then Thief of Time. You shouldn’t really just jump into The Hogfather so I suggest you read some more Death Books (Reaperman and Soul Music are next. Personally I don’t like Soul Music much, but that’s a minority opinion too) or Guards! Guards! next.
There is one more semi-religious one: Carpé Jugulum (did I get the é right?). It’s got one of my favorite lines in it although I can only paraphrase it (and spoiler it, nevertheless):
Oh. So this battleaxe is not a holy object? Let’s make it one! (Protagonist then uses it to take out one of the evil vampires.)
I’d say “Guards, Guards”. It doesn’t seem like every Discworld novel is up your alley, so the Watch novels seem a good way to go. Most of them are pretty good.
After that, I’d say the Tiffany Aching books. The rest of the Death novels are kind of hit or miss.
The first Moist van Lipwig book, “Going Postal” is entertaining, though it’s a much more recent one, so maybe after some of the others. It’s not necessary, though it can help, to have some background on Ankh-Morpork and Vetinari before heading into that one.
First of the Witches: Wyrd Sisters - because all of them lead to Tiffany Aching
First of the Watch: Guards Guards - because all of them lead to Night Watch, which I don’t like but everyone else does.
Death and the Wizards (as a group): Reaper Man.
If there’s one you don’t like, read the next, you’ll probably love it. That’s the beauty of Discworld.
Different people prefer different categories of books within the series. For instance, I dislike the wizard/Rincewind and witches books. But I like the “tech” books like Moving Pictures, The Truth, etc. For others it’s the opposite. (But the last books in the series are generally not well liked, regardless of category.)
The Wikipedia biblio lists the books with categories, but they aren’t labeled in the way I would choose.
Based on the OP’s comments, I would urge avoiding wizard/Rincewind books and try some other group.
