I've read a lot of PKD, though not everything. My top three picks would be:
1 - Ubik
2 - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
3 - Martian Time Slip
Honorable mentions:
4 - A Maze of Death
5 - Divine Invasion (the 2nd of the VALIS trilogy)
6 - Eye in the Sky
Of his short stories, I'd recommend "Beyond Lies the Wub" and "Roog".
Regarding movies influenced by his work:
The original "Blade Runner" movie is far better than "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". The original "Total Recall" movie is far better than "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". "The Terminator" is far better than "Second Variety". "The Truman Show" is better in some ways than "Time Out of Joint" (though this is a closer call, and as usual Dick's vision is a lot darker than Hollywood's take on it). "A Scanner Darkly" and "Minority Report" are also minor works, which you would lose nothing by skipping.
I would also avoid prety much all of his later work and his so-called "Exegisis". For me, Philip K Dick was best when he was writing straight scifi (or at least as straight as he could write it).
Later he tried to write more "literary fiction", or things that had little if any scifi in them, and failed utterly. His navel gazing and endless obsessing about a minor mystical experience in the Exegesis could also not be any more dull. Avoid.
Some of his early and mid-career work is fantastic, though. He is definitely one of my top three favorite scifi authors, if not the very top for his best work.
He wrote A LOT, however, mostly due to being incredibly poor and yet insisting on supporting himself and his family exclusively by publishing work that was appreciated by very few people throughout almost all of his lifetime. So overall his work is of very uneven quality, and can be very hit or miss if you insist on reading through much of it.
I can't agree with you regarding the movie adaptations. They are different. Some are very good movies, but they are "inspired by" PKD's stories rather than straight adaptations.
I can get why you prefer the movies, given that you write that you prefer PKD's "straight scifi", but to me his "straight scifi" is the most boring part of his output.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is not Blade Runner. Blade Runner is a single story-strand from Androids, re-imagined. It's a better movie for it, probably, but what makes PKD's stories to me is the density, with multiple intertwined stories.
As for Exegesis, it's for the specially interested. Of course it is navel gazing - it was his attempt at making sense of his mind after a psychotic breakdown. It was never written for publication.
Interesting that you consider A Scanner Darkly minor. I'm guessing you're referring to the book, not the movie. Why's that? I found it to be really good- it'd probably be in my top 5 (Ubik being #1 so far).
Sorry, but it's probably been about 20 years since I read it (and most of his other work). So I couldn't give you any kind of detailed critique on it, except to say that it didn't leave much an impression on me, unlike top picks or honorable mentions.
Regarding movies influenced by his work:
The original "Blade Runner" movie is far better than "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". The original "Total Recall" movie is far better than "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". "The Terminator" is far better than "Second Variety". "The Truman Show" is better in some ways than "Time Out of Joint" (though this is a closer call, and as usual Dick's vision is a lot darker than Hollywood's take on it). "A Scanner Darkly" and "Minority Report" are also minor works, which you would lose nothing by skipping.
I would also avoid prety much all of his later work and his so-called "Exegisis". For me, Philip K Dick was best when he was writing straight scifi (or at least as straight as he could write it).
Later he tried to write more "literary fiction", or things that had little if any scifi in them, and failed utterly. His navel gazing and endless obsessing about a minor mystical experience in the Exegesis could also not be any more dull. Avoid.
Some of his early and mid-career work is fantastic, though. He is definitely one of my top three favorite scifi authors, if not the very top for his best work.
He wrote A LOT, however, mostly due to being incredibly poor and yet insisting on supporting himself and his family exclusively by publishing work that was appreciated by very few people throughout almost all of his lifetime. So overall his work is of very uneven quality, and can be very hit or miss if you insist on reading through much of it.