Comment 20 by RJMoore :

I'd be very interested to see if anyone, apart from a die-hard evangelical or a biblical scholar, is actually capable of reading the entire thing from cover to cover....I mean every single word like. Maybe some have, but I find it hard to believe that anyone could get thru the entire OT without skipping bits of it. I tried a few times and found that my eyes just glazed over after a few pages....maybe I'm just lazier than most!

If I had to 'recommend' just one book from the Bible, I'd say you should read Mark (text and commentary). It's short, understated, seminal, and quite puzzling. If you want to have some 'ammunition' for discussions with Christians(particularly those 'innerant' ones), reading Mark will provide you with plenty....no Virgin Births, no mention of Bethlehem, no Massacre of Innocents, no sojourns in Egypt, no flowery debates with Pilate, no mention of divinity, not even a bloomin' resurrection!! It gives a much different picture of Jesus from the one almost every Christian has in his mind.

Well after reading a couple of books you'll end up wondering if you've been wasting time. Then you start skipping :)