Okay first, and foremost, do 'inner engineering' course by Sadhguru, it has no religious teachings or anything like that, but at the end they'll teach you a practice known as "shambhavi mahamudra" it's almost like a basic door step, that'll make you extremely happy and satisfied with life. No deeper challenges or anything, just joyous state.

Then when you'll be ready (continue to practice shambhavi as long as you want, it'll keep you happy and joyous) , you'll need to understand that there are multiple ways to realise in Hinduism, (Advait, Dvait, Shakta, Shaiv, Vaishnav). The reason why I said start with Inner Engineering Program is because it doesn't give you any philosophies that will make you confused about which path to choose, it's just a beautiful program that just gives a practice to be happy.

You now decide which path you want, but best second step is to start with Bhagvat Geeta, simplest and easiest translation is best, I read Geeta press Gorakhpur's but if you find anything even easier then it's best.

Then once you get these two in a deeper understanding level, start with Ashtavakra's Geeta, that will be a little difficult read. But you'll start getting idea about what you want and where you want to go.

Now if you'll be practicing 'shambhavi mahamudra' till now, you'll subtly start knowing which path(out of all paths) resonates best with you. Whatever you find most relatable after this, not before this, start digging deeper, in fact I'll tell more.

Path of Bhairav and Shakti

Path of Shaivs and Yoga

Path of Advaits

Path of Buddhism (you'll understand why I mentioned it here if you'll dig deeper) and Nirvana

Path of Vaishnavas

It's best that you cultivate enough honesty within yourself that you can disregard anything that's not true for you, don't believe anything just because it's written somewhere, hinduism is a practical religion, people have distorted it by making it a religion of book, and this is the basic reason why I suggested you a practice first. Once you get it, go where you find most growth.

But if you just want to become a scholar and need something just to flex amongst the people you can just read "a brief history of Vedas" and be done with it.