The Bible is most certainly meant to be taken as the recording of actual and real events, and as the actual and real words of God as written through His servants, under the influence of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:15-16).
How can we believe that the world was made in six days (Genesis 1:1-2:3), or that Noah lived 950 years (Genesis 10:29), or that God stopped the sun for Joshua (Joshua 10:12-14)? Simple. God is bigger than you or I or any of the other 8 billion people on the planet, or the other people that came before us or even all of us banded together (Romans 11:33-36). God is supernatural and therefore He can manipulate the physics or math (I study advanced mathematics, so I understand the math) that HE put into place, can extend life that HE created, and can make the world appear just by speaking things into existence (Genesis 1). These things are called, for us created beings, “miracles” but they are just what God “does”. He would have to be that powerful to call Himself “God”. Would you worship a god who couldn’t handle creating the sun and stars from speaking them into existence? Would you worship a god who couldn’t handle creating light 11 billion lightyears away, reaching it to the earth in an instant (verses taking 11 billion lightyears to reach us)? I sure wouldn’t worship someone who was only as smart as I am or as powerful as I am, or even someone who was somewhat smarter than me or powerful than me. I wouldn’t worship someone who could make a mistake or who could lie to me. Otherwise, I’d just worship myself. The Bible tells us that God has given all of us enough proof to believe in Him (Romans 1:18-20), and therefore to be curious about Him and to seek Him. That’s why we are responsible if we decide to deny/reject Him.
If you are having trouble taking the Bible literally, you may want to ask yourself if you truly believe in God at all. If you do, pray that He would increase your faith and trust in Him. In fact, pray to Him about everything. Find that place where you can be quiet, where you have no other distractions, and just pray.
Really dive into your Bible reading. It doesn’t matter where you start in the Bible, but if you need a beginning point, start with the book of John, which I recommend because of John 20:30-31. Don’t get caught up in making yourself read a chapter every day or some arbitrary number of verses at a time. Really understand each verse you do read; don’t be afraid to use tools like biblehub.com to look up verses and read the Greek or the Hebrew words for things. The original languages that the Bible was written in offer more insight to the “feel” of a word. And always pray for guidance in your Bible reading. Treat time with God as even more important than going to work or spending time with your family. Time with God should be that important, if you really believe in God and who He says He is.