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Um, start with the Gospels, and then head back to Genesis, and read straight on from there. Then read the Gospels again, and then read the rest. There are a lot of horrible things that happen in the Old Testament, and the justifications (or lack thereof) can be really hard to understand without good annotations.

I recommend the NAB (New American Bible) or the NIV (New International Version). The NAB comes with its own tailored footnotes, and if you go NIV, you should try to find a non-denominationally annotated one. The NAB is the official American Catholic Bible, so expect a little bit of Catholic bias, but you'll find the annotations are actually quite liberal (and very good) for a Catholic bible...so liberal that there have been official petitions to the church to redact them.

I use the King James version of the bible because I think it by far the most correct translation. My bible has a lot of foot notes and really good annotations and those are what helped me get through reading it.
The old testament of the bible is made up of the history of Israel and how they were turning their backs on God, so they had to suffer consequences of their actions. I've never seen any thing in the Bible that has said humans are bad. We just make bad choices and some times our choices affect others, not just ourselves.
The new testament of the bible talks about Christ's life and His ministry while He was here on earth. It also contains the letters of Paul and a few other apostles. It also talks about how a lot of the old testament laws were fulfilled.

The world is filled with bad things. The world is filled with bad people who are sadly mislead by their own.
Religion isn't all pink and fluffy.... God sees hell, he knows terror, and he does not like it. That's why he made us the same and set us up like this: to hate things that are bad.
He want's us to connect to those bad things, so we can help those people like Jesus would in those situations.
I know, no matter how terrible, I Thank God for the hell I've been through. Because I can now help people who are there, heading there, or worse. I can help them face it, and show them that is not the only way. It has been those points in my life I've had to rely on God the most... He wants us to read his word, including the bad parts, to show us how he has worked in history with people who are going through the same things we are today. To show us that he has seen it all, he has cried, he has felt our pain, embarassment, not only the joy. There is no beauty in the results of sin or sin itself, but it sure is a good wake up call.

Maybe he wants you to face it: I've met many Christians who have never faced these things. Jesus faced these things every day! He helped those people! He dined with the tax collecters, loved and saved the prostitute! Helped the unwanted of society and the mentally ill.

To make change, we need to be willing to go through or atleast try to help Him, try to help our brothers and sisters that are either lost, hurt, forgotten, or in pain. The best soldiers are those who did not go to war because they wanted to, but just know, just understand... they don't want to fight, but to save lives, they know what they need to do and what they need to know.

FEAR IS OF SATAN, NEVER FORGET THAT. TRUE LOVE KNOWS NO FEAR, THE VALLEY OF DEATH IS BUT A SMALL SHADOW COMPARED TO CHRIST WHO LOVES US.

And bad things happen: We brought sin into the world, so we have to mess with it. It's not God's fault. It's not his responsibility to clean up for us all the time, although, he helps us out in far more ways than we will ever even notice in our lifetime. He saves us everyday from something, I firmly know that. Compared to the good he has done, and how he gave everything and offers everyone a chance, no one, having everyone be guilty of sin, can complain. ((Fear and temptation are not sin btw, just fyi))

Scary or not it is our history and it can't be changed.. Look around you we have death,rape,torture...etc in this world. You must realize the purpose in god's word is to point to the hope of our savour Jesus, who can work us through our imperfections and provide us with everlasting life with out what you are afraid of. Yes it may make you feel worse about yourself and it may scare you at some points but this is all to show you that he accepts you as you are and will punish the wicked and put a end to sin once and for all. I suggest starting in The Gospel of John perhaps proverbs and psalms even Ruth ... those are the tamest books i can think of . Above all pray for understanding the bible can be pretty intimidating but its actually a pretty awesome read if you start to get into heavier studying.

well thats an easy problem to solve BURN IT!!!!!

Aw. Well...I would agree that it depends on what version you are using. King Jimmy (James) is my favorite, but I wouldn't start in the Gospels. Read a few Psalms, those are all about singing praise to our God. Read Ephesians, Philippians, and Galatians too, those are some very strong and awesome books of the New testiment. I mean, the gospels aren't scary, but they require you to trust in the Bible and have some knowledge of what the Bible has in it for you.