I used to take classes but don't anymore. And I bought a lot of books in the past. I think it depends on several factors: where you are in your walk with the Lord, gifting, and life season. It's easy to turn this into a law or develop a lot of head knowledge. Which can puff a person up and I've seen that too.
What I look for in a person with knowledge of the Word is fruit and an ability to convey its meaning with simplicity. And this is where study can get murky. I'm including this in my answer for a reason. You'll see a lot of scripture quoting and that's what happens when you know the verses. But oftentimes there's nothing more beyond this. Understanding is absent and wisdom can't be found.
It's called the Living Word for a reason and that's how I approach it. I don't spend hours pouring over the bible but there's a consistent thread in my replies and an evidence of its knowledge. I can convey that with ease to a believer, agnostic, or atheist in their vernacular. I think that's more important than a litany of verses. But others may feel differently.
If you have a teaching gift you may benefit from Warren Wiersbe's books. He covered every one in the bible and would read the text 50 times before conducting a study. Many books have errors because they referenced other works that didn't have the same attention that Wiersbe possessed. You can find his books at Christian stores and Amazon. They often put them on sale.
If you're just starting out and don't have access to a lot of materials and prefer digital books instead, I recommend
Scribd. It's a small monthly fee and you can try it for 2 months free of charge. They have a huge collection of Christian audio and eBooks.
Precepts is another option. They have in-person classes and conferences too. You can study at home as well. This is good if you want to dig into the text and learn how to run references and touch on Greek and Hebrew. They provide videos with the workbooks. I recommend the series done by Wayne Barber. He's entertaining and very knowledgeable in Greek.
Their format is inductive bible study. Which studies the text line by line. You can find the books on Amazon or Scribd. The blue covers take longer to complete but they're more in depth. The workbooks have varying durations. Kay has a program on
Lightsource too.
I've done both methods and then some. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
