I have been reading bits and pieces and usually only when I do the quiet time but read cover to cover three times when I was new believer. I suggest you do both if you have energy to. You can do a little bit at a time with the cover to cover reading. Put a book mark at where you last stopped at.

I would suggest you read just a few chapters at a time. This way you can better absorb what is being said and read, If you read too many at a time, you have a tendency to cloud your mind and it makes what you have read, harder to retain.,

So, I've read the Bible through before. I've used different reading plans.

The simplest reading plan is just to start in the front, with the book of Genesis, and keep on reading (some amount most days) until you end up at the end of the book of Revelation. This is the plan I used the first few times.

All you need for that is a Bible and a bookmark, or some other way to keep track of where you left off. (Like LavenderC said).

You can choose to read 3-4 chapters every day if you want to read the whole Bible in a year, but not everyone has time to do that everyday, and sometimes as I'm reading I wonder stuff about the passages and then it takes longer when I pause to look stuff up. Anyway, my point is to read as much as you like and don't feel obligated to finish in a year, but if you have time to read more, that's great!

There are other more complicated reading plans. Here's a link to a few of the other options:

https://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/

If you don't want to read straight through and you don't like any of the plans at this link I think also bible.org might have a list.

Peace and blessings.

I used to start the Bible fresh on Jan 1, and read it for the whole year.

I accomplished that by reading 3 chapters of the Old Testament and 1 from the New Testament daily.

That has helped me read cover to cover over 50 times. (Sometimes in a Bible survey course of the OT, I would read the book through in different translations. Of course, that didn't work for the Psalms.)

I now also read a Psalm daily (except Psalm 119, which needs a few more days to read it!)

I will also tell you their are parts that are hard to get through, especially the genealogies and some of the prophets, Ezekiel being the most difficult for me.

My advice is just to read the hard parts, and don't try and make sense of those first readings. Later, I had Bibles that explained the book's author, time it was written, important dates, and purpose if the book. Holman's. (HCSB) Study Bible was great for that. You could also learn about genre as you are reading.

Gordon Fee's book " How to read the Bible for all Its Worth!" Is a great basic intro to genre, context, and not to long, or difficult. (Although I did have to look up a few theological words!)

Keep track of what you are reading. I use a monthly paper calendar. In my early years, I just had a book (key tab) that I entered what I read every day! You don't even have to do that, if you don't want. I am quite methodical. But do have some bookmarks, a pencil and ruler for underlining passages that God seems to make bolder for you personally. I also keep track of special verses in the blank pages at the back of my Bible. I remember I was in a group, and someone asked if there were any minor prophets that had meaningful verses. I just turned to where I had been reading in the minor prophets, and had lots of verses. Micah 6::8 comes to mind, as I just read it!

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

Also, remember to pick a translation that is in contemporary English. I could never understand the KJV!

Some good ones are NIV, NET Holman's (HCSB). Or, use Biblegateway.com. It has many versions, you can try them out.

I was mentoring a woman who was in a Bible study group. She also read bits and pieces here and there. She was very smart, a skilled reader (she was a lawyer) but when I talked with her, I could tell she wasn't seeing the overview and the overarching story. She refused to read straight through. But her Bible group brought up the importance of reading straight through the Bible, so she gave in, did and learned a lot

Or just Google "Bible reading plans." You can do a 1 year read through, or a 2 year, or 3 or 6 months plans. You can read chronologically, or in the order of the Hebrew OT. I did that on my OT Survey course, because that is how we were taught, and our text book used Hebrew book order.

But it doesn't have to be confusing. Pick a plan, read and grow!

Thank you for sharing. I agree with MarleneJ, as find an one year plan that mixes daily Old Testament and New Testament. It helped me to provide that important link, that The God Of The Old Testament Is The God Of The New Testament. God Bless.

Amen, RJW!

I'm going to use that, if you don't mind. Too many people, including me as a new Christian in the early years never saw that very important connection between the God of the OT, and the God of the NT. Because they are the same God!

Thanks for posting that!