it took me a good 30-40 years to learn to give up on books. There are quite a few I ground out but they didn't really land.
I think there are some that I'll give another go. I'm older, more perspective. There are books I read that I hated but friends enjoyed. There's also stuff that I read as a kid that, well, didn't hold up on a revisit. I imagine I'll give Borges' fantastical realism another shot someday. But at that time in my life it just didn't hook me. There are some big bad Russian books I'll take another stab at as well.
I think the Bible I think pushed me over the edge. My profession gives me a certain tolerance for long lists of names and rules. There's some beautiful stuff, there's some horrible stuff. . (no judgment either way about other readers beliefs). But yeah, multiple authors over a long time, with whatever revisions. It's a difficult book. Maybe someday, I'll take another run at big religious texts. Every attempt is sooo hard.
There are very few books I'd say I'd never try again, but most are so forgettable to begin with, I doubt I'd ever find them again, or realize this was round 2.
"The Bible" isn't really one book, and trying to read it as one is ... messy and hard.
It's a convenient collection of a whole bunch of short books.
I'd think reading individual books would be a better approach.
Story books: (written as narrative, can pretty much be read as is, just with lots of historical context need for some "wtf?" And "why is that a good thing?" Moments) Ruth, Esther, Jonah, possibly Mark and Acts.
poetic stories: ( narrative content, but expressed in Hebrew poems, so form and patterns etc more than just reading for the story) parts of Genesis, Job, parts of John, and Revelation.
History (biased, but still intended to be read as history, contains lots of individual short stories): Parts of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, The Samuels, Kings and chronicles collection, some of the prophets, Luke, Acts...
"Wisdom literature" / poetry: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, song of Solomon...
And a whole bunch of prophecy, laws, other stories, collected letters to people, and a whole bucket of misc.
Genesis & exodus, as a "ancient Israel primary establishing narrative" maybe a good start if you want to read a whole bunch of the Bible. But then skip and read some stories from later on in Jewish history, try reading some of the more famous Psalms, perhaps with some of the commentaries about them, to see what people believe the meanings behind them are, etc. Checking out some "Bible history timelines" may be helpful too, to get a grasp of when and why different bits were written, and to whom.
Reading about Jesus' life, the four gospels basically cover the same stuff, but written to different audiences, with slightly different emphasis (writing to Jews who knew their religious history, compared to writing to non-Jews living in Roman context who were still investigating this new thing, etc). John is kinda poetic, Mark is all about the action, Luke is trying to be methodical, and Matthew brings in a lot of expected past knowledge of things)... Reading them and comparing them can be interesting to see the different perspectives, but any one of them is enough to get the basic idea.
After Jesus, Acts gives the continued story, what the early church did. And then most after that is letters addressing specific people and circumstances. Reading them as "blanket rules for all ages" without knowing who and why they were written, knowing about the context, what was already the culture at the time, etc, makes them really easy to misread parts as endorsing things our culture does differently, compared to critiquing the situation at the time... I guess that's true of all ancient literature.
> Reading them as "blanket rules for all ages" without knowing who and why they were written, knowing about the context, what was already the culture at the time, etc, makes them really easy to misread parts as endorsing things our culture does differently, compared to critiquing the situation at the time... I guess that's true of all ancient literature.
A very important point. I find that many, including Christians, approach reading the Bible as a textbook, or a moral code of sorts to guide behaviour.
Treat it like ancient literature developed over thousands of years, different people making various modifications to it not unlike an open source project, and it can become super insightful. Of course ancient people were wired differently from us, but the lindy stuff in humanity remains
I think there are some that I'll give another go. I'm older, more perspective. There are books I read that I hated but friends enjoyed. There's also stuff that I read as a kid that, well, didn't hold up on a revisit. I imagine I'll give Borges' fantastical realism another shot someday. But at that time in my life it just didn't hook me. There are some big bad Russian books I'll take another stab at as well.
I think the Bible I think pushed me over the edge. My profession gives me a certain tolerance for long lists of names and rules. There's some beautiful stuff, there's some horrible stuff. . (no judgment either way about other readers beliefs). But yeah, multiple authors over a long time, with whatever revisions. It's a difficult book. Maybe someday, I'll take another run at big religious texts. Every attempt is sooo hard.
There are very few books I'd say I'd never try again, but most are so forgettable to begin with, I doubt I'd ever find them again, or realize this was round 2.