Note

I attempted to read Dune many years ago, but dropped it at chapter 10 as I wanted to review things but never did. On my second attempt I am taking my time, taking a lot of notes, watching ComicBookGirl19's videos, watching the movie in chunks, and chatting on the Dune discord. It is really only the early chapters that have all the world building that is a little overwhelming. Once the action starts around chapters 15 and then 18, I can read through without feeling the need to review everything.

Here is some advice I've been collecting as I'm reading it.

Tips For New Readers

Novels, Stories, Parts, and Chapters

It might not be immediately obvious, but there are chapters in Dune. When it was original published in Analog as Dune World, it had roman numeral chapter numbers but they were dropped when it was published as a novel. It's helpful for external references, books clubs, and ebook searches if you know the chapter numbers. They each start with quotes called 'epigraphs'. Physical copies of the book and most ebooks do not have them numbered, although the preview for the Dune Kindle Edition appears to have chapter links. I edited my older ebook with Calibre to add the chapter number headers and chapters links in the Table Of Content.

Links:

The first novel Dune is made up of three parts called "Books", so there can be some confusion between the first three novels of the Dune Series (Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune) and the three books of Dune novel (Dune, Muad‘Dib, and The Prophet). "Book" is correct in both cases, so it can be confusing. I try to use "novel" for Dune, Dune Messiah, etc. I rarely talk about the parts so when I do I might call out the chapters as well, that is, Dune (ch 1-22), Maud’dib (ch 23-37), and The Prophet' (38-48).

Saying 'novel' and 'part' can help, but 'Book' is correct in both cases. I try to use "novel" for Dune, Dune Messiah, etc. I rarely talk about Dune, Maud’dib, Prophet parts and when I do I'd also call out the chapters as well ch 1-22, ch 23-37, and ch 38-48.

When the story was serialized in Analog magazine, it was split into two stories ('Dune World' and 'The Prophet of Dune') and those were split into 3-parts and 5-parts, respectively. I am not sure if it would make things more-or-less confusing if we start talking about those "parts" and the 3 "Book" sections of Dune as "parts".

Getting Past The Initial Hurdle

The early chapters (1-14) are doing world building and do not have much action. It also uses a lot of invented terms without explaining them right away which can be confusing. Some people stop reading in these chapters. There is more action in chapter 15-17 and the story gets moving in chapter 18. Take your time with the early chapters and then you can read quicker starting with chapter 18. Try to get to the end of Book I (chapters 1-22) before giving up.

The issue is that much of the world building and back story is just briefly mentioned. They are brought up again briefly in other chapters. It's good to use some external references, books clubs, and ebook searches to collect the lines on those topics.

References

There is a Terminology of the Imperium at the back of the book, but it has spoilers and no pronunciation guide. (There a spoiler-free version on the Dune discord server) For help with pronunciation, either read along with the audio book or see the Sounds page on usul.net.

Links:

The Appendices have major spoilers in them. Wait until you finished the rest of the novel before reading them.

There are world maps out there, variations of the map in Cartographic Notes, but they are not needed for the early chapters.

There is the out-of-print Dune Encyclopedia was written alongside God Emperor of Dune. It has debatable canonical status and later books contradict it. There are PDF copies online (both an image scan version and a searchable OCR text version). Maybe peek at it early on and then read it after God Emperor of Dune as it is full of spoilers to the earlier books.

Novel Read Orders

On your first read, start with the Dune novel rather than prequels. Also, common advise would be to read the rest of the books in publish order rather than in-world chronological order.

Links:

First Trilogy

Most people will recommend reading the first trilogy (Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune) straight. However, noting that, there are some options.

You might want to read the original serialized illustrated version of 'Dune' in Analog magazine, then called Dune World (book 1) and The Prophet of Dune (books 2-3). The three-part Dune World was from December 1963 to February 1964 and the five-part The Prophet of Dune was from January to May 1965 issues. It also includes a synopsis of earlier parts at the beginning of the parts. (PDFs of those issues are available at http://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AN.htm)

There is a very, very short story called "The Road To Dune" by Frank Herbert in Eye that has very little text around 9 large illustrations that fits in after Dune. (The short story "The Road To Dune" should not be confused with the book 'The Road To Dune'.)

The book Road To Dune includes additional material by Frank Herbert including deleted chapters and alternate scenes for Dune and Dune Messiah that may be of interest.

There is a short novel "Spice Planet" (also found in 'The Road To Dune') that is an alternate novel based on Frank Herbert's early notes but the novel was written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. This is a more conventional novel and while it fills in the details a bit more, the plot details are different enough that it does not really fill in the details for the 'Dune' novel.

There are some Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson short stories and two novels (Paul Of Dune and The Winds of Dune) that chronologically fit in between the original novels, but the consensus appears to be to read the Frank Herbert books first.

After First Trilogy

Brian Herbert has a read order page (https://www.howtoread.me/dune-reading-order/) that discusses possible next steps after reading the first trilogy.

Also of note is the the out-of-print Dune Encyclopedia which was written by a friend of Frank Herbert around the time he was writing God Emperor of Dune. It has debatable canonical status and later books contradict it. There are PDF copies online (both an image scan version and a searchable OCR version). Maybe peek at it early on and then read it after God Emperor of Dune.

Movies and Miniseries

There is a fan edit of the 1984 David Lynch movie that is preferred by fans. It is currently on both YouTube and torrents. Search for "SpiceDiver" or "Alternative Edition Redux". It divides the movie into four Books with the "Book I: The Great Houses" corresponding to the first 6 chapters.

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94d77kdmOvU

Audiobooks

I'm using WinAmp with PaceMaker to read along the audiobook. My PaceMaker setting is Tempo +53.0%, so that's around 1.5x.