People think I’m insane for this, but I usually recommend new readers start on TDR rather than EOTW. It’s where I started- way back in middle school my mom and I would listen to audiobooks in the car, and she picked TDR up for us not realizing it was part of a series. We didn’t really notice that it was book 3; it picks up in a really solid place, summarizes everything that happened before, and introduces everyone pretty well.

My big reason for it is that, IMO, book 3 has a big tone shift and a lot of character changes from book 2. For example, Perrin’s whole arc in book 2 is about accepting leadership and accepting the wolves at the same time, and by the end he has pretty well accepted the wolves- he has spent a lot of time communicating with them, and has been open with another person about his ability. Then, in book 3, suddenly he hates the wolves, and wants nothing to do with them. I know why that happened (IMO because Jordan was setting up longer-term plotlines after fully committing to more than 3 books) but it’s still noticeable.

I think starting at book 3 gets a new reader in with the characters as they will be written for the rest of the series, and gets them into the writing style Jordan uses in the other books. Then, go back and read 1 and 2, and you’ll have the characters as established in 3 in your head the whole time- so Mat suddenly becoming a compulsive gambler makes more sense, and Perrin’s later reluctance with the wolves makes you want to read him as reluctant about it in all of book 2.