Over the last couple of weeks, I did something I've been meaning to get round to for a while now: I sat down and read the Bible from end to end.

Not for religious reasons, I hasten to assure you; anyone who was expecting to be able to count on me as a staunch atheist can still safely do so. A minor objective was to find out a bit more about what the Christians I know believe, but primarily my motivation was literary: lots of modern writing refers or alludes to the Bible, and I've often not been entirely sure what the explicit references are talking about, and have probably missed quite a few of the subtle allusions.

So after an unusually large number of Bible references happened to go over my head during a period of three or four days the other week, I decided enough was enough and set out to actually read the thing. I allowed myself to skim-read if it got boring (the censuses, the genealogies, the endless indistinguishable psalms and proverbs and prophecies, the extensive theology and moralising in the New Testament etc), but I wanted to at least get from one end of the book to the other and be left with an understanding of its overall structure and plot.

( the good, the bad and the curious )