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Yeah I'll say right off the bat I have no real interest in playing the Warhammer 40K tabletop game, I'm not even interested in trying out something like D&D because, eh, for some reason tabletop games of that sort never really interested me personally (maybe because I was spoiled by video games first, I dunno).

But that said I've had an interest in the world and lore relating to it for some time now. Part of this stems from things like checking out some episodes of "If the Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device" and finding it funny even if unfortunately I don't understand much of the lore related stuff, and just seeing a lot of the memes that come from the Warhammer 40K fandom like "Cultist-chan" and jokes about the funny voice acting in one of the Dawn of War games ("SPEECE MARINES!" and "METAL BOXES" come to mind right away).

I already know Dawn of War 1 is something that's worth checking out, and I actually already own the Space Marines third person shooter game on Steam (I confess I don't remember when or why I got it though, maybe it was part of some bundle during a summer sale) which I've heard is good and "actually makes the Space Marines interesting" (I'm aware that apparently some writer at Games Workshop treats the Space Marines with a high level of favoritism that annoys a good amount of the W40K fanbase, but said writer was not involved with this game and fans felt that this was a really good thing).

But yeah, anything else worth checking out? Like are there some other good Warhammer 40K games out there, or maybe some books that are worth reading? And I admit one reason I ask about the books in particular is because I saw Humble Bundle is selling a Book Bundle that comes with a lot of Warhammer books, and I'm wondering if they're all worth a read.

Don't know many books or stories, but here are a couple of web links, don't know if they will help you:

One mind syndicate youtube

40k theories, it has a good amount of lore

40k lore reddit

One of my favorites: 1d4chan

I'd definitely say that some of the books in the humble bundle like:

- Path of the Warrior

- Nightbringer

- Baneblade

- Priests of Mars

If I remember right are some good introductions to the 40K setting.

But books series that are very popular for good reasons are:

- Caiphas Cain series

- The Horus Heresy, which is best to start with the first three books: Horus Raising, False Gods, and Gaxaly in Flames.

- Path of the Eldar and Dark Eldar series

- Eishenhorn

- Gaunt's Ghosts

- Ragnar series

- The Sisters of Battle, the omnibus by James Swallow

Some good individual books are:

- Farsight: Crisis of Faith

- Fall of Damnos

- The Talon of Horus, and Black Legion.

Unfortunately, some of the lore in the books might be pretty inconsistent due to codex releases or authors doing their own thing sometimes. Worse one being C.S. Goto who was the worst lore breaking writer in the Black Library, at least Matt Ward some point after the Ultramarines and Grey Knights writing started writing better characters and fluff somewhat.

Of course, you could get codices, but the new ones are pretty expensive and both the new and old ones can be a mixed quality bag, with lore differences that are also mixed bags. The biggest case of one of the worse codices made is the Grey Knight 5th edition and the Tyranids 6th edition, former broke both the game and lore so fucking hard while the latter made every nid player feel deeply violated and other faction players worry when Rob Cruddance was said to be writing for them except the Imperial guard players.

As to games, I can't say that I played anything beyond the Dawn of War series or Space Marine, mostly due to how other 40K games vary in quality a lot.

There is also the Dark Imperium book series I believe, although it and the Horus Heresy might give you whiplash from how different Big E is to in those works when compared to fan material, old lore and Emperor Text to Speech Device.

The Dawn of War games are great. Just ignore the third one, though.

Another great game is Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. It captures the setting very well and has great ship combat. It also has some of the best cutscenes I've ever seen in a video game.

Unfortunately, the multiplayer is dead right now. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II is coming out later this year.

I would also recommend checking out Arch Warhammer on Youtube for his lore videos.

To be honest, with channels like Vault Terra, Arch Warhammer and even Emperor Text to Speech Device, you have to take them with a bottle of salt.

The Lore channels like Vault of Terra and Arch Warhammer (who isn't really well liked from what I've seen of tg board due to making big screw ups like saying Cadia exploded when it didn't as well as other stuff) copy from the wikis and the latter takes stuff from tg 4chan wiki page, both sources that are only somewhat accurate but will miss out on details with the latter source being funnier than accurate.

And Emperor Text to Speech Device combines old and new lore with a side of comedy.

They are good starts but you if you want a more accurate picture of the lore, then reading the books and codices. Although be ready for some mixed bag of writing as while 40K has some good writing, it also has some of the worse writing around and retcons more and larger than Warcraft.

Seriously, if you want to find out stuff like the in-universe slang or the fact that Imperial doctors use medical humorism (I assume the words and not the ideas) in the Imperial Guard handbook then get ready to hunt for that online in forums or buy the right books.

I highly recommend reading any media of Warhammer 40k orks. Hell, google the codex for the Orks because it has a good amount of lore in it too. I am not just saying this because I am an ork player but I find the race genuinely fun and entertaining.

This video alone should give you an idea of the race:

Did you ever check out The Beast Arises books? I heard that they were focused on the orks who are… different in the 32M compared 42/41M in the setting.

You're not the only one who's only interested in the lore and the like. Quite a deal of people never bother with the miniatures as it is pretty much an expensive hobby.

Thankfully, there are alternatives through books and other media, even if the quality tends to vary a lot as the others in this thread have mentioned, and it is indeed better to get the lore from the source itself by looking into the codices. It is also interesting to look at the differences between newer and older codices, simply to see what has been changed.

A quick way to get up to date are indeed the wikis and the lore videos, but sometimes it's good to look at the source, as those wikis and videos are often made with the perspective of the one who wrote the page or made the video.