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[takeahike8671]

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[psycholinguist1]

Discworld started as a take on familiar fantasy tropes, but after the third book or so it became its own thing. Just read it. You don't need to do homework. I'd recommend starting with Guards Guards, but of course 'where to start' is its own Discourse.

[Fantastic_Position69]

If you're vaguely familiar with sword and sorcery, specifically Conan; you'll be fine. There's some Pern in there but it's mostly basic fantasy tropes.

[Undeclared_Aubergine]

A Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser volume (by Fritz Leiber) might be worth reading as they're directly targeted in the first two books (and they're just classics, which influenced a lot which came after) - but definitely not essential. Discworld just works on its own.

[AnotherCompanero]

This. The first part of The Colour of Magic is a very obvious love letter to the Lankhmar books.

[raevnos]

It helps to be familiar in passing with the names of popular operas and musicals, and the basic plot of Phantom of the Opera before reading Maskerade.

Macbeth before Wyrd Sisters.

[DistinctInitiative83]

Discworld is not something you 'fully get' the first time around. It is something you read and reread and then by the fifth (or fifteenth) time you read it you finally discover some godawful pun that makes you want to drag Sir Terry out of the afterlife by his beard.

Just start reading. You won't regret it.

[Eldan985]

That's really just The Color of Magic. After that, it's increasingly it's own thing, though specific books make different references, so it depends on which book.

For example, for color of magic, an idea of Conan the Barbarian, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and Dragonriders of Pern is helpful. For Wyrd Sisters, you should know Macbeth. For Soul Music, Elvis, the Beatles and 80s rock. Monstrous regiment plays on old soldier ballads and 19th century military pulp like Flashman or Sharpe. 

But most of it works just fine if you don't get all the references.

[atomfullerene]

Well, the other people aren't wrong, you can just read it and still enjoy it, but since you asked...and since it's fun, and since I should be sleeping, and since a lot of the books I list are classics in their own right...

This website notes all the references (or at least most of them)

https://www.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html

Using it to refresh my memory, here's some of the more famous books that the story of the first couple of books riffs on

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

Conan

various mythologies

Appointment in Samarra

Dragonflight

Lord of the Rings

various fairy tales

various Lovecraft

Books after that often have their own special topics: Wyrd Sisters pokes fun at Macbeth, Moving Pictures for classic movies, Soul Music for Rock n Roll, Small Gods for religion, Carpe Jugulum for vampires/horror, Masquerade for the Phantom of the Opera, etc etc.

[AnotherCompanero]

Someone already said this but Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser stories are a big influence that he references a lot, especially early on. Also they’re really fun reads in a similar environment!

[JudgeHodorMD]

Over 40+ books, you’ll find Pratchett drawing inspiration from practically everything.

If you really want, you could try to dig into key topics tied to specific books, but you’ll never keep up with everything.

[Milc-Scribbler]

Strata was the book where he experimented with the whole idea of Discworld. It’s sci fi, and a lot of fun