A Good Approach
This is a very good way to appoach the Qur'an, especially for people with some background in Biblical studies. Michael Sells (now at the University of Chicago Divinity School in the History of Religions) emphasizes the oral character of the Muslim scripture -- that its recitation is a primary religious act. The book has a CD with several styles of recitation of some of the Suras.
The main reason this is a good approach is that it concentates on the early Suras, those proclaiming the power of the Last Judgment, with its wide-ranging imagery from nature and social life. Sells gives fine translations of the Suras from 81 on with brief commentaries. If one is particularly interested in the biography of the Prophet, this is how the revelations began. This is where the emphases were before the more challenging tasks of organizing and governing an 'ummah that was also a state began.
Good texts and good sounds!
