Grant Morrison Batman Trades Question

Morrison's run officially starts with Batman & Son, but 52 sets up the story so you'll definitely want to check that out. Here's the chronology:

52

Batman & Son

The Black Glove

RIP

Final Crisis

Batman & Robin: Reborn

Batman & Robin: Batman vs. Robin

The Return of Bruce Wayne

Batman & Robin: Batman & Robin Must Die!

Batman, Inc.

For a thematic companion, check out Arkham Asylum. If you're a completist, read Morrison's JLA run to see him developing his take on the New Gods that will be explored in Final Crisis and The Return of Bruce Wayne. If you go down that road, however, you'll have to read Seven Soldiers of Victory. 

Final Crisis isn't needed to understand Morrison's Batman saga because he reiterated the most important parts in Time and The Batman. I also wouldn't waste your time with 52 because Morrison's Batman section is small. Essentially it establishes the themes that carry over to Morrison's Batman run where he tries to cleanse Bruce Wayne of his angst. I really don't think Morrison's run is that confusing, the major problem is that people jump into Batman RIP without realizing that there were fifteen or so issues before it. I love Morrison's Batman, and think it's one of the quintessential Batman stories. My revised list:

Batman & Son

The Black Glove

Batman RIP

Batman & Robin: Batman Reborn

Batman & Robin: Batman vs. Robin

Time and the Batman (This one is hard to place)

The Return of Bruce Wayne

Batman & Robin: Batman & Robin Must Die!

Batman, Inc.

Batman: Leviathan (Starts in January)

I added the other books because I'm a big Morrison fan and love connecting his works. For instance, I'd say Animal Man should be read in order to further appreciate the Superman Beyond segment of Final Crisis. Still, technically his Batman run can be read on its own.

Blackest Night follows up on some of the events of Final Crisis, not much, but some. It has fuck all to do with Batman RIP, though. This'll make more sense if you read all of it, since I don't want to spoil anything.

Blackest Night and the ongoing Red Robin are when the heroes realize Bruce is not dead. I'd recommend both as fun reads, but there's nothing there that isn't covered by The Return of Bruce Wayne.

Seriously, Morrison's run is self-contained. The only thing that bothers me is the limited presence of Dick Grayson prior to Batman & Robin. From a story point of view, B & R (of which the first three volumes are essentially Act 2 of a grander story) asks you to care about Dick with very little set-up. Yes, he's the first Robin and works as a strong contrast to Damian, but mostly conceptually. If anything Act 1 (Batman & Son, The Black Glove, RIP) sets up Tim Drake as a begrudging new mentor of Damian.

Dick only ever shows up in flashbacks (when Batman went into the isolation tank for Dr. Hurt) and then in a limited role in RIP. I wonder how much was editorial interference, and if Morrison ever intended Tim Drake to be his new Batman. After all, Dick was originally supposed to die in Infinite Crisis.

The easy assumption is, of course, that the readers are familiar with Dick Grayson and the history of Robin and Batman. They're probably even reading the other titles in the Bat-Family. Still, I remember when New X-Men stood completely alone and wasn't taking story cues from Agent X.

I've only read Morrison's stuff of the Final Crisis kerfuffle. There's a bit in Batman and Robin that's sort of, conceptually, tied in with the "Black Lantern" stuff (which I only know about from reading comics news sites and so on), but it's not really, and all the information you need is within the story itself.

As other people have pointed out elsewhere, pretty much everything Morrison's ever written for DC comprises one gigantic saga that's tied in with itself more than the other books. Even The Invisibles basically spun out of Doom Patrol. So you could just start reading Animal Man and Doom Patrol and work your way through for the complete experience. Well worth it IMHO. But if you want the cut-rate version, just read his JLA run, Seven Soldiers (which is seriously one of the most tragically overlooked but great comics sagas of recent years), All-Star Superman, and his Batman run.