/lit/ - Literature

How would a non-religious person go about studying the Bible?

I have tried many times to read the Bible, since it's such a historically and culturally important book, but have always stopped soon after starting; and I feel that the little I did read didn't sink in.

So, how would I go about reading the Bible? Cover to cover? Are there parts which I should skip? Any supplementary material I should be reading along with it to help me understand?

pic unrelated

>>4267819
>buffalo
>he we go

>Yo See da child. He iz pale an' thin, he wears uh thin an' ragged linen shirt. He stokes da scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields wif rags o' snow an' darker woods beyond dat harbor yet uh few last wolves. His folks is known as hewers o' wood an' drawers o' water but in truf his father has been uh schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he quotes from poets whose names is now lost otay buh-weet