I haven’t read all of Iain M. Banks The Culture series, but I highly recommend Use of Weapons. I’ve read it three times, and it gets better each time.
It’s not a bad introduction to The Culture, but please feel free to recommend another novel to start with, or your favourite. I’ve read this, Look to Windward, Consider Phlebas, and The Player of Games. As I recall, Look to Windward has some good descriptions of a large Culture ship.
I’d also love to hear your favourite ship name.
Edit: I see I added The to the title…
Good book, but I wouldn’t call it a good introduction to The Culture. The batshit narrative chronology makes it pretty unapproachable. The Player of Games is much more straightforward and accessible. Consider Phlebas is also more straightforward, but it tries to do too much or something and ends up weirdly disjointed at times. Still, either of those would make a better starting point. Really though, The Culture books (that I’ve read which isn’t all of them) are more episodic than serial. You can start with any one of them.
Excession is a good start