your safest route is sticking to publication order for the core series. It's how the author developed the plot and characters, so you'll catch all the foreshadowing. Jumping around a 'chronological' order often spoils twists meant for later readers. For something like Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings, you'd want to go 'Assassin's Apprentice', then 'Royal Assassin', and so on. Mixing in the Liveship Traders trilogy after the first Farseer trilogy is actually essential, even though it's a different setting, because events there ripple back into the later Tawny Man books. Skipping it leaves gaps.
That said, some universes are more modular. With Terry Pratchett's Discworld, you can follow specific character threads instead of the forty-plus book publication list. The City Watch arc has its own internal order that builds beautifully. Trying to read all of Discworld in published order isn't wrong, but it's a different kind of journey—you see the world itself evolve, not just one story. So, depends if you want a character's full story or the entire world's unfolding saga. I usually lean toward publication; it feels like experiencing the story as it was originally told.