The Culture?

[Todeswind]

People keep referencing the Culture in various posts and I'm a bid embarrassed to admit I haven't the vaguest clue what it is. Not to put too fine a point on it but what is it and where can I find the first book/show/move/whatever in the series?

[Samuel]

The Culture refers to a civilization from a book series by Ian M Banks. I don't believe the order the books are read in matters much although Consider Phlebas is the first in the series.

Here is a bit of a description about the culture:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/The_Culture

I should note almost none of the stories take place inside the culture because, as a completed utopian society it is pretty boring.

[Darth Nostril]

The Culture is a pan-human galactic civilisation featured in the science fiction works of Iain M Banks.
The first in the series is Consider Phlebas, followed by The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, The State of the Art (short story anthology), Excession, Inversions, Look to Windward, Matter and Surface Detail.

In short the Culture has been a space-faring civilization for over eleven thousand years, they are a very advanced post scarcity society living on countless artificially constructed habitats millions of miles across because planets are small and weird and get hit by things. The pan-humanity component of Culture gave up the day to day running of their civilization to the Minds, incredibly sophisticated descendants of the first AIs, in order that they could lead lives of complete and utter fun.
For the most part that suffices, but for those that desire more or want to be involved there is the Culture component known as Contact and its shadowy subsection Special Circumstances, they deal in the interactions with various other In-Play and developing civilizations.

It's in this grey area between diplomacy and subterfuge that the events depicted in the novels occur (apart from the first one which is out and out war)

[Stark]

The Culture. First hit, top of page.

[Todeswind]

Ok, I admit that was funny.

To be totally honest I was a little worried that "Culture" was too ambiguous of a term to be google searched considering that I wasn't sure if I was looking for a book, a TV show, or a movie.

[Sriad]

The Culture refers to a civilization from a book series by Ian M Banks. I don't believe the order the books are read in matters much although Consider Phlebas is the first in the series.

Here is a bit of a description about the culture:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/The_Culture

I should note almost none of the stories take place inside the culture because, as a completed utopian society it is pretty boring.

Generally true but Surface Detail, the most recent book, should be read last.

Or at least after that other book that gives us the background on Spoiler

.

[Niz1]

Given that Surface Detail follows on ideas presented in Look to Windward i would say yes try to read it in sequence, other than that you can read the others in pretty much any order.

Player of Games and Use of Weapons I would say are the best to start with, since they are two of the better ones in the series and have good plots. Although "Use of weapons" is written in a non-linear fashion so could be confusing, its a damn good read.