Plowing Through The Old Testament

For years now I have had a desire to find a good version of the Old Testament.
Several weeks ago my husband bought me an Orthodox Christian Study Bible,for an early birthday gift.
Each night I try to spend about 15 to 30 minutes reading this book.
After 75 pages I have learned about creationism,envy,anger,murder,likening one self to God,polygamy,slavery,circumcision,brotherly loath,destruction and incest.(Now I know where the 10 commandments come from,I think those people broke them all at least once.)
I also learned that Moses is the author of both Genesis and Exodus.Funny I never really thought about who wrote these books before.
I have read through the New Testament at least 6 times and it all seemed understandable and familiar to me,I have read allot about the Roman Empire,but this is different and alien.
In the past year, for whatever reason,I have suddenly connected the fact that in order to understand the New Testament fully,its important to understand the old.A connection has been made in my mind that we are one.Its like our family tree,we can live a good life understanding our parents and grandparents but its kind of nice to find out where we started and why we are who we are,how we got to this point,so to speak.
Fr.Peter tells us "we are reformed Jews".I guess we complete the full circle.
So day by day I plow along and I must say once I got to Joseph I decided that reading the genealogy of each family,at this point,is a waste of my time,it just overwhelms me trying to remember who is whose child and to top it all off God likes to give people new names.
My plan,for now,is I will just read through The Old Testament,then I will start over and try to get it some what straightened out.
I now understand why Jewish Scholars spend a life time reading and rereading these stories it is certainly challenging.Not being a quitter I plan to just keep reading until I finish.Hopefully in the end I will learn something and it will help me connect better to the New Testament.....we'll see....