how to read scripture

Has anyone looked at the section titled "Strategies for Reading Scripture"? I just opened my Bible to that page and something on it caught my attention, especially after all the Frye I've emersed myself with lately. John Barton writes: "First, we should read the Bible in the expectation that what we find there will be true." He goes on to talk about some groups of Christians where the "truth that is looked for is literal and historical truth, so that whatever the biblical text affirms is taken to be factually accurate." But, Barton notes, many do not subscribe to this theory and therefore the "truth it contains may sometimes be poetic or symbolic truth rather than factual truth, but it is not an option to suggest that anything in the Bible is an expression of error." That last bit is the part that caught my attention. Who is he to say "it is not an option"? What about free will and intellectual freedom etc. are we not free to interpret for ourselves this text?