Been picking up and reading all the TPBs that cover Batman's early years before "modern continuity" kicked in. I listed these out once before, but here's a more thorough list now that I've read them all in order. Incongruities are noted at the bottom.


YEAR ONE

Batman: Year One (first Batman)
Batman vs. the Monster Men: Dark Moon Rising Vol. 1 (first Hugo Strange)
Batman and the Mad Monk: Dark Moon Rising Vol. 2 (first and, uh, only Mad Monk)
Batman: The Man Who Laughs (first Joker)
Batman: Four of a Kind (first Poison Ivy, Riddler, Scarecrow and Man-Bat)
Batman: Haunted Knight (first Barbara Gordon)

YEAR TWO

Batman: The Long Halloween (first Two-Face)
Batman: Year Two (Joe Chill identified, first Reaper)

YEAR THREE

Batman: Dark Victory (first Dick Grayson)
Robin: Year One (Dick Grayson becomes Robin)

EARLY YEARS

Batgirl: Year One (Barbara Gordon becomes Batgirl)
Nightwing: Year One (Robin becomes Nightwing, first Jason Todd)
Huntress: Year One (first Huntress)

EARLY MODERN CONTINUITY

Batman: The Killing Joke (Barbara Gordon is crippled)
Batman: Death in the Family (Jason Todd dies)
Batman: Lonely Place of Dying (first Tim Drake)
Robin: A Hero Reborn (Tim Drake becomes Robin)


INCONGRUITIES

These stories were done by different creative teams, out of order and over the span of a decade or two. As such, there's some discontinuity and they don't all sync-up precisely.

*Year One ends with Gordon telling Batman that some guy calling himself The Joker is going to poison the Gotham Reservoir. The Man Who Laughs has the Joker receive his name from the media and doesn't attempt to poison the reservoir until well after his identity has been established. Additionally, the Dark Moon Rising series takes place between Year One and The Man Who Laughs, so there's even more time in-between the end of Year One and joker poisoning the reservoir (Monster Men is established as happening the day after Batman fights the Red Hood at Ace Chemicals).

*Gordon's rank fluctuates a bit, depending on the writers. In Year One he is a Lieutenant until he's promoted to Captain at the end. The Poison Ivy and Riddler chapters of Four of a Kind identify him as Lieutenant, while the Scarecrow chapter identifies him as Captain. You could write the "Lietutenant" remarks off as continuity glitches, if you're inclined.

*Scarecrow's chapter of Four of a Kind takes place before Long Halloween, yet Two-Face makes a brief one-panel appearance. Scarecrow's chapter could conceivably be replaced with Batman/Scarecrow: Year One, but THAT story doesn't show Scarecrow existing until the era of Robin, making HIS appearances in Haunted Knight, Long Halloween and Dark Victory impossible. The Four of a Kind chapter presents less discontinuity with its one-panel appearance of Two-Face, so I'd just go with that if I were you.

*Tony Zucco's fate is inconsistent. He dies in Dark Victory, but Robin: Year One states that he's in jail.

*The Canonicity of Year Two has been debated. Zero Hour: Crisis in Time retconned it into oblivion by claiming Joe Chill had never been identified or caught. Infinite Crisis retconned the retcon, returning Joe Chill to continuity. So because of that, some argue that Year Two must be back in continuity, too. At any rate, since it opens with Gordon being addressed as the "newly appointed" Commissioner, and Long Halloween ended with him becoming Commissioner, it has to take place afterward.

*Mr. Freeze is shown in his modern Batman the Animated Series-inspired costume in The Long Halloween with his freeze gun. Batgirl: Year One has him in his Silver Age "Mr. Zero" costume with his old fashioned "spray can" freeze device.


THOSE incongruities aside, the early stories actually read together well-enough. If you want, of course, you can go for the "pared down" version and just read Year One, The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. They cover years 1-3 and were all written to interlock together and tell a single ongoing story (well, Year One wasn't initially, but the rest were built off it) and there's no continuity glitches between them.

But that's if you don't wanna go for the deluxe timeline.