Personal Culture novel ranking:
Look to Windward -> Matter -> Use of Weapons -> Inversions -> The Player of Games -> Excession -> The Hydrogen Sonata -> Surface Detail -> Consider Phlebas
I realize this might be a little iconoclastic.
Element115Art
Do them in order. Just go into them understanding that you might not totally love Consider Phlebas, but keep going. It's kind of a weird first novel for the series, but you shouldn't skip it.
