The Year of the Ox Reading 3: "How to read the Bible"

I guess this is from a British series on how to read great works of literature. That is how the author treats the Bible throughout. He looks at it less like a work of religion and more as a great work that anyone can learn from. He addresses the work to that group of people who don't worry about if the work is true.
I think that is why I liked it. What if the Bible isn't true? That is an important question. For many it would end their faith. But as I have learned over the years the truth doesn't have to be true in order to speak to a truth that is in us all.
I have read the Bible this way for years and have always been fascinated by the cast of characters inhabiting it. The people in it are real. They do the same stupid things that all of us do; they often fail; and they try to turn to God when they need Him. I think the Jews have always been a persecuted people because they have been so honest in their assessment of themselves. Most people aren't so critical of themselves and create super-humans to rule over them. But not the people who wrote the Bible. You have a doubting Messiah, a horny David, a stuttering Moses, and Abraham, the father of it all who questions God, except when He asks him to kill his own son. (I figure that is why I would have the most question.)
So if you are new to the Bible, pick up this work. It will present it in a way that you didn't imagine. Then you might pick up the real thing.