After years of believing in the bondages of religion, I now find myself challenging a lot of things before I accept them as truth.  My pet peeve about 'reading' the bible is just the overemphasis put on it. 

200 years ago or so, most people did not have a bible -- this was not considered the dark ages.  People still prospered, got healed, received revelation from God, and were blessed in their walk with Him. How is this possible?  The Word of God is written in our hearts.

There is no magic in the pages and ink and I'll go as far as saying there's not much revelation by chapter and verse either.   Most 'memorizers' I know usually miss the message that God is trying to get across.  The Word says to renew my mind by HEARING the word.  These folks from the past heard God's Word from preachers and word of mouth.  The concepts, ideas, and messages were passed along from generation to generation and these are truly what God is trying to get across to us.

I recently attended a bible study where we argued if "money was the root of all evil"  or "the love of money was the root of all evil.  This was battered back and forth until the meeting was adjourned.  Well I certainly didn't get much revelation from beating a bible verse to death.  The concept is that God is the provider and that I shouldn't make money a higher priority than Him.  If my money concerns take up more space in my head than my relationship with him, then I show a lack of faith.  There's peace in the concept that He's my provider.  I didn't find much spiritual peace or truth discovering that the "love of money" was the groups choice in that night's bible study.         

I personally listen to tapes and watch preachers I have spiritually discerned as telling the truth.  Topics and examples help me get the message God is trying to convey to me.  I read the bible because the Word is in those pages and that's who God is.  It's hard to have a relationship with someone if I don't know much about them.   

A bible that's simple to read and gives the concepts of the bible is The Message. The Message is a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible from the original Greek. I've started reading it and the jury is still out.  It could be one of the best bibles for the general public since the original Word in Konai Greek.