I read it as a historical novel for the first time and then a religious inspiration for the second time. I have to say that for both times, I like the New Testament much more than the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, there was this really, in my opinion, not reasonable, control freak and easily-got-julious "God" doing a lot of killings and destroying civilization. And the excuses were that His people did not obey Him and prayed to other gods! Then suddenly, the poems expressed the love and forgiveness He had for His people... and soon again, He would got anger and announced His plan to put a whole city including women and children all to misery without mercy. There were also a lot of rules and procedures about how to submit the offerings (grain, animal or oil...) to Him in various complicate ways that really bored me. The whole history before Jesus Christ in that area seemed just a long eventful records of obeying, receiving magical helps, disobeying and receiving punishments... I should said some of the events really do read like a science-fiction of a higher-civilization's mighty tyrant and a poor kingdom with hopeless people trying to survive.
In contrary, New Testament is lovely to read, even with repeating descriptions on certain events. Some of the letters are really noble and touch me a lot. I respect Jesus' quality and the lessons he shared. Only this last chapter "Revelation" confuses me a lot; what's it all about???
I have so many questions to ask (mostly for Old Testament and the Revelation) and hope to do so with a advised website. I also plan to read several other books to be guided to understand this book from other angles.