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Read them in any order you like but let me just stick up for Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic.
A friend lent me Colour of Magic in 1987 and I read it in a day. That's no big deal for some of you but I rarely did that, much less rarely now. But it's a sign of how much I enjoyed it. I went right out and bought Light Fantastic which I devoured in a couple of days. Then I had to wait for Equal Rites to come out. So obviously I read them in publication order because I was buying them as they were available.
I was initially disappointed with Equal Rites because it didn't seem as funny but later I realised it was the first time he tried to write an actual novel as opposed to a string of comic scenes riffing on standard fantasy tropes. The lazy comparison is to say he did for fantasy what Douglas Adams did for SciFi but really apart from add humour to a usually non-humourous genre they both did things very differently. (I love Adams by the way, no shade intended there)
If someone were looking for a recommendation of where to start I'd ask what kind of thing they like to read, and try from there. One possibility might be publication order depending on the person.
After a while I found my relationship to Discworld books settled down. I think you are always guaranteed a certain level of quality, but some are really good. Also I think that read-it-in-a-day enthusiasm came from a) me being young and b) never having read anything like it before. Once you've read a dozen or so you get the feel for the humour and can see the jokes coming. Still raises a smile but not as often LOL.
The better books rely on story and character. And there are some great characters in Discworld.
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