In what order should the books of the (Protestant) Bible be read?

There are various ways to read the Bible. Quite a few websites provide reading plans that can help you with that. Among the best of them, I'd recommend:

• Bible Gateway's reading plans
• ESV reading plans
• You Version reading plans
• Zondervan reading plans

There are tons of others if you just search for "Bible reading plans" on your favorite search engine!

Cover-to-cover is definitely not a good option. I would suggest starting from the New Testament first. Read the Gospel of Mark, which is the second book of the New Testament. Then, read Acts. When you've got the gist of the whole story (there is a story going on), you can either read the rest of the Gospels, or read about the very beginning, Genesis onward.

Genesis, is about the Creation, and the early beginnings of the Israel nations. Skip Leviticus, as it's all about technical stuff. Read through till Ecclesiastes, then stop. The rest are the books of prophets, and contain prophecies concerning matters of the past and the future, and you probably won't be interested in that.

If you feel like it, you could read all the other books I've left out, but the reason I've left them out is because they're more of the doctrinal sort, whereas the ones I've listed are more of the narrative type.

My advice is to not view the Bible as Testaments or sections. View it as one big thing. As far as order is concerned, I'd treat it like this:

Genesis a mythology about the beginning of time, a worldwide disaster, and the founding of a nation [think Romulus and Remus when reading about Abraham]

Exodus an escape story; the true believers of a deity are held captive by a nation and a man who don't respect the god of the slaves; therefore, the god of that nation shows his power by destroying the former slave-masters and rescuing his believers...pretty riveting

Leviticus not as literary; think of it as a rulebook given to those that god saved. basically, "I saved you from a life of slavery; now you owe me. Do this and don't do that, etc."

Numbers retells some of the Exodus story, while documenting the time Israel spent wandering in the wilderness for disobeying god already.

Deuteronomy Moses' pep talk to the Israelites before they're finally allowed in to the land that god promised them; basically reminding them of what they've been through, encouraging them to be faithful to god, and energizing them for the coming task.

Joshua continues the story, as Joshua (not Moses) takes Israel into their Promised Land. Cool stories abound, especially one about walls of a city toppling down.

Judges a book that reminds me of Seutonius' 12 Caesars, in a way...basically the judges were the men/women that god chose to govern over his people during the time of their first years in their new land. there are good ones and there are bad ones, but most of them are pretty entertaining

Skip Ruth for now.

I/II Samuel tells the story of the last judge, Samuel, and the beginning of the kings of Israel. Starts with Saul, who was a great warrior but not so holy of a man and finishes with David, who was pretty much the Odysseus/Achilles/Aeneus of Jewish culture.

I/II Kings tells the story from David to Jehoiachin, the 400 year dynasty of kings in Israel. Mostly not so good kings, and Israel gets conquered by another nation, supposedly because they fell away from god again.

Skip ahead to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and read those. Then go ahead and go to Hosea and read down through Malachi. Now, you have a basic chronological account of the history of Israel. Now, let's read some poetry.

Read Psalms (a huge list of poems and songs), Proverbs (a sort of Benjamin Franklin almanac of wise sayings), and Job (a sad story about how god allows those who love him to be tested, seemingly as some part of a cosmic game). Then read Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. Next, read Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. (Warning: Daniel is crazy). I'd skip the Chronicles. This is the order of the Tanakh, in case you were wondering. I think it gives the best order to read the 'Old Testament'.

Now, for the 'New Testament'. I would read Luke and then Acts (even though they're probably not by the same author, as once thought, they chronologically fit pretty well). After Acts, avoid the New Testament order and read Paul's epistles in the order he actually wrote them, rather than by size (how they're ordered now).

• I Thessalonians
• Galatians
• II Thessalonians
• I Corinthians
• Romans
• II Corinthians
• Philippians
• Colossians
• Philemon
• Ephesians
• I Timothy
• Titus
• II Timothy

Then, go ahead and read Hebrews through Jude. Give yourself a break. Refocus. Then give Revelations a go. After all that, if you want to read the other gospels, go ahead and do so.

I'd take a similar approach to Thursagen, with some tweaks. Start with a Gospel: I recommend Luke since he covers more of Jesus' life than Mark and is the same one who wrote Acts. Now you have the historical context of early Christianity. While you're in the New Testament, check out Romans which lays out a lot of the core beliefs and gives you a better perspective on the gospels.

Now go back to the Old Testament and learn your history. Start "in the beginning" with Genesis and Exodus, skip to Joshua (avoiding lots of dense legal material), and continue through Esther (or Job, if you feel like it). If you're really into poetry continue through Psalms and Proverbs, otherwise skip to Ecclesiastes and finish up with Lamentations and Daniel, which is a book of prophecy that also includes a good narrative. Isaiah is worth checking out too, since it's a major prophetic book that is referred to quite a bit in the New Testament. By now you have a pretty solid base of the Hebrew scriptures.

Then go back to the New Testament and read Hebrews, which puts the Gospels into more of an Old Testament perspective, and some of the other Epistles, or Revelation if you're interested in the apocalyptic writing. Finally, go back and fill in anything you missed.

I would actually recommend starting with the Old Testament, because it provides the background that makes the New Testament make sense. The story of Jesus, and later his apostles, traveling around preaching and doing good is certainly very significant to our culture, but it has a lot more meaning when you understand the culture that it itself is set in, and that is laid out in the Old Testament.