I would love to hear your STRONG SUGGESTIONS on Cosmere reading order, if you feel like sharing! (From your tags on /post/773079877074206720.) Your posts about the books are inspiring me to give it another try but I'm not sure where to begin.
First, accept that when it comes to the more recent publications, you're almost certainly going to have a Discworldian experience of there simply being NO reading order that lets you be aware of every time crossover or reference - or, if there is one (1), trying to adhere to it would diminish your overall reading experience, and some of the references are going to be so ambiguous that you wouldn't catch them anyway.
In my judgement, there is no point where you won't understand what's happening in a book set on one world because you haven't read a book set on another world. Maybe a bit of confusion, an awareness of lack of context, but what needs to be explained for the current narrative always is.
I think this state might end with the upcoming Ghostbloods trilogy, ie Mistborn Era 3. It will almost certainly end by the space opera trilogy that is (planned) Mistborn Era 4.
Also, this flowchart is pretty good, though I disagree with it in places.
I find it useful to think of the Cosmere in phases:
COSMERE PHASE 1: Warbreaker, Elantris, Emperor's Soul (novella), original Mistborn trilogy. Read these in any order, adhering to internal series chronology (ie, Mistborn 1 > 2 > 3). You can also read short stories "Sixth of the Dusk" and "Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell", but you'll only find those in the Arcanum Unbound short story & novella collection, which is overall Phase 2.
^ Warbreaker, Elantris and Mistborn are all set on key worlds with characters or worldbuilding that will be vital to the Cosmere as a whole later on. The fourth key world is that of the Stormlight Archives.
^ Feel so free to start with the stand-alone novels rather than the Mistborn trilogy, if you need to ease back into this. It's 100% fine. None of these books connect to each other at all.
^ oh yeah, White Sands probably goes in here too, which I literally forgot about because it's a comic book rather than novel, so I've never read it. I mean, I hear it's perfectly fine; I'm just not a comic book person. I think that flowchart forgot it, too.
IF you have already been spoilered for the big finale results of the original Mistborn trilogy, consider reading just Alloy of Law (Mistborn Era 2, book 1) to get your metaphorical engines revving for Scadriel, then go back and read the original Mistborn trilogy, then read the rest of the Era 2 series. It's not necessary, and you should ONLY do it if you know the Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Ascends to Godhood parts of the original trilogy. But if you previously stalled out of the universe, this might help!
COSMERE PHASE 2: Mistborn Era 2 series, Stormlight Archive #1-5, Arcanum Unbound (short stories & novellas, including Mistborn: Secret History).
^ Stormlight Archive is VERY Epic Fantasy, all oaths and secret magic of ancient history and world-spanning politics, each book a MINIMUM of 900 pages. Mistborn Era 2 is detective-adventure with a dash of Indiana Jones, each book like 400 pages max. Feel free to alternate, honestly, to keep your brain fresh.
^ ...and the flowchart is right that the optimal experience is to have read all of Mistborn Era 2 (including Secret History) before SA #5. And if you haven't yet, read Warbreaker before SA #3.
^ and read Elantris before Secret History.
^ For Mistborn Era 2: the chart is wrong; you should read Secret History AFTER Bands of Mourning, for the optimal frantic theorizing/"what the HELL" experience.
^ I've definitely forgotten some short stories in Arcanum Unbound, but they're clearly associated with specific series, so just read them when you obviously should.
COSMERE PHASE 3: Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, The Sunlit Man. The Ghostbloods trilogy (MIstborn Era 3) when it comes out.
^ Due to [STORMLIGHT SPOILERS], the Cosmere is currently, in-universe, in kinda-lull before some sort of all hell breaks loose (probably in SA #6). These books all take place during that kinda-lull.
^ You technically can read Tress or Yumi earlier, in that they have no plot connection to any other book...but the narrator of both is a diegetic character and they go here in his personal timeline. And he casually references worlds beyond those of the books, for flavor. So you're really best reading them here - unless you want a mild sense of confusion the first time through, and a strongly satisfying "Oh, THAT guy!" upon rereading them several years later after reading everything else!
^ Sunlit Man you really should wiat until after SA #5.
Other books likely to happen in this Phase: Warbreaker sequel (novel? novella?); novella crossing over Stormlight Archive x Mistborn Era 3; Mistborn cyberpunk novella (era 3.5, may turn into multiple books and its own Era because that's what happened with Era 2). Maybe an Elantris sequel.
COSMERE PHASE 4 (predicted): Stormlight Archive #6-10. Elantris #2 and/or #3. Mistborn Era 4 epic space opera trilogy (aka Cosmere: Endgame). Dragonsteel book and/or trilogy, explaining the backstory to All Of This, wherein 17 bozos decided to kill God and eat the ashes.
