We often hear the question of whether we should read and interpret The Bible literally or allegorically. I would say we should do neither. I would suggest that we take the words in The Bible seriously and read them normally.
What do I mean by that? I believe every word in The Bible is there for a reason. Therefore, we should take every word seriously. I also believe that we should read The Bible as we would any other similar text by using normal interpretation for that type of text. For instance, you would not read and interpret the text in The Wall Street Journal the same as you would a poem by Robert Frost. And so it is with The Bible.
There are several types of literature used in The Bible, including: didactic literature, narrative literature, poetic literature and wisdom literature. As noted above, you would not read and interpret each of these the same way.