The translation itself is clear conversational English. It was originally done by the American Bible Society for people
in other countries who speak English as a second language.
If you’ve ever tried to read the Bible cover to cover, be advised
it’s a bad idea. The Bible was written by a lot of different people at a lot of different times, so it should be read more like a magazine than a book. Flip around, see what looks interesting, skip the boring parts. The individual stories are tightly written and short so it really isn’t a big deal to read any one of them. And the way the Good News Bible is set up makes it easy to tell where one story stops and another begins. (Some good easy short stories to start on are Ruth, Esther, and Jonah.)
