I never read the old testiment because I thought it was a collection of fairy tale stories, but I appear to have misjudged it. I didn't know it was made up of action stories like our history books are today, only the Hebrew Bible has a moral behind it. It's no doubt that this should be preserved, I believe all religious works should be for the sake of moral education. 
How did these books first come together? Did they all go to a central location and put their stories together or was it like a book that got passed around and everyone just added to it?