Ryken’s Bible Handbook
Amazon’s Price: $13.58
This book gives students of the Bible a quick overview of every book in the Bible. Leland Ryken’s distinctive trait is a literary approach to the Bible–understanding the Bible as literature. The three authors help shed light on understanding the Bible as the inspired Word of God and as literature by looking at the Bible’s different literary genres: poetry, narrative, wisdom literature, story, parables, and more. This is a top-notch Bible Handbook and it is worth its weight in gold. For a great Bible introduction, a class or Bible study it is the best.
Read the first chapter (pdf): http://files.tyndale.com/thpdata/FirstChapters/978-0-8423-8401-8.pdf
InternetMonk’s review: http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/the-book-ive-been-waiting-for-rykens-bible-handbook
