re: The Bible and other religious literature

I pretty much consider myself agnostic, but I do have a great deal of respect for almost any religion. Religious studies are super interesting to me in general, and I don't think you have to be an adherent to find some value in religious texts. For me personally, I love history and I love literature and great storytelling, so I tend to approach religious texts from a standpoint of appreciating the parables and the "mythology" of the texts and trying to find common themes across cultures.

I'm particularly interested in the Vedic texts of Hinduism, once again not from a religious perspective but from more of a storytelling perspective. I own several bibles and holy books from several religions. I once asked some Mormom missionaries for a copy of the Book of Mormon just to add it to my library. I would like to read Dianetics and some other Scientology stuff, even though I don't really have any reverence for them or consider them a "real" religion.