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This may be a lot more info than you are interested in, but here are my thoughts in as condensed of a way as I can put them. Also, full disclosure, I work for Crossway which created and publishes the ESV translation:
I'm not sure what you mean by *best* but what I would argue the best thing you can do is read the original Greek and Hebrew texts. No matter how strong and quality a translation work, there will always be things that are lost. And by lost I don't mean *core Biblical truths*, I mean structural things and things pertaining to clearer meaning of a text that English (or another language) might not have exact equivalent language for. Like how the Greek NT uses distinct words for specific types of love that we just don't have in English. If you cannot read Greek or Hebrew, there are plenty of supplementary tools out there to help.
If by best you mean *closest English translation to the original manuscripts (i.e. most accurate)* then some translations are considerably better than others but none are perfect. I tend to think that it is best to regularly read a few different translations and for different purposes. I favor KJV, ESV, NIV for daily reading. NASB and NKJV are fine too. Helps to know the strengths and weaknesses of each translation, which are mostly based on the translation philosophy they were created with.
Many other translations emphasize readability which can mean a lot gets lost (a good example I have heard is if a text says something like "and David slept with his fathers", there is a temptation to make that more readable by simply saying something like "and then David died" which is technically correct but then misses the intentional language of *sleep* which corresponds to death and which hints at *waking*/*resurrection*).
I do think it is also worth having at least one study bible and would personally recommend something in the Reformed stream (ESV study bible, Reformation Study Bible from Ligonier, etc). Any other kind of resource or specialty bible comes down to preference.
TL;DR: Original Hebrew/Greek texts, one or two solid daily reading translations (ESV and KJV for example), and a study bible (Reformation Study Bible for example).
I'm not sure what you mean by *best* but what I would argue the best thing you can do is read the original Greek and Hebrew texts. No matter how strong and quality a translation work, there will always be things that are lost. And by lost I don't mean *core Biblical truths*, I mean structural things and things pertaining to clearer meaning of a text that English (or another language) might not have exact equivalent language for. Like how the Greek NT uses distinct words for specific types of love that we just don't have in English. If you cannot read Greek or Hebrew, there are plenty of supplementary tools out there to help.
If by best you mean *closest English translation to the original manuscripts (i.e. most accurate)* then some translations are considerably better than others but none are perfect. I tend to think that it is best to regularly read a few different translations and for different purposes. I favor KJV, ESV, NIV for daily reading. NASB and NKJV are fine too. Helps to know the strengths and weaknesses of each translation, which are mostly based on the translation philosophy they were created with.
Many other translations emphasize readability which can mean a lot gets lost (a good example I have heard is if a text says something like "and David slept with his fathers", there is a temptation to make that more readable by simply saying something like "and then David died" which is technically correct but then misses the intentional language of *sleep* which corresponds to death and which hints at *waking*/*resurrection*).
I do think it is also worth having at least one study bible and would personally recommend something in the Reformed stream (ESV study bible, Reformation Study Bible from Ligonier, etc). Any other kind of resource or specialty bible comes down to preference.
TL;DR: Original Hebrew/Greek texts, one or two solid daily reading translations (ESV and KJV for example), and a study bible (Reformation Study Bible for example).
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