There are lots of great answers here about how to read the Bible generally. But to answer your specific question:
I want to 1) get the general idea of the stories in the Bible and 2) to understand the internal (perhaps literary?) references in the text....I am looking for guidelines on how to read the Bible so I can achieve the above 2 goals with just one reading
I would recommend the following reading plan as the fastest way to read through just the stories of the Bible and building context for later events in the Bible.
Old Testament
I often recommend that new readers start with the New Testament, but doing so immediately puts you into in media res territory. Reading the Old Testament helps to see God's dealings with humanity in context and helps to understand why God had to take the drastic measures of sending his own son to live and die in order for humanity to be saved.
Genesis to Numbers
This constitutes the bulk of the law/Torah/Pentateuch. I've left Deuteronomy off this list as the stories it contains are largely repeated from events from Genesis to Numbers.
Genesis
Contains stories about God creating everything, man's earliest dealings with God, and the how and why of God making the nation of Israel his special people.
Exodus
Contains stories about God rescuing the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt and the beginning of their journey toward having their own land.
There are some dry spells of reading between Exodus 21-40 (second half of this book) that don't explicitly contain stories, but reading through it is useful anyway as the stories contained here help to provide some context for events that happen later in the Bible.
Leviticus
This is probably the most borderline book in your reading plan, but it does contain some stories about how a holy God deals with his wayward people in the middle of the Sinai wilderness.
Numbers
Contains stories about the nation of Israel struggling to realize God's promises of a forever home.
Joshua to Esther
All of the books contained here (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles1, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther) contain the bulk of the stories of the history of the nation/kingdom of Israel, from their early days in possessing the land of Canaan to being thrown out of it to being restored to it once again, so these would be must reads in your plan.
11 and 2 Chronicles is largely a repeat of the narratives in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings, so I'd call it optional reading, but there are some unique stories contained only in these books.
Job
A standalone story, but wonderful to read. A good study to address the age-old question "why do bad things happen to good people".
Jeremiah
Jeremiah is the longest book of the Bible, but there are some stories only contained here that address the reasons why God began doing his "strange work" of punishing his own people (Israel) via the armies of Babylon (also covered in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles).
Daniel
A bit of a standalone book, but it contains some of the more famous stories of the Bible and lays the groundwork for why God ultimately does restore Israel to their land in the late 500s BC.
Jonah
Also a standalone book, but contains another famous story of the Bible.
New Testament
With everything you've read before, you'll have an excellent context for the ground covered in the New Testament. One note: many Bibles have a system of noting references to other related passages as you read through various passages. The goal is to help provide context for the events/sayings for that particular passage. I'd recommend following these references as they should help to connect the passages you've read in the Old Testament to the truths of the New Testament.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
These are what's called "The Gospels", or "good news". These books contain the good news that God has for all of us: there's hope for us in the person of Jesus Christ to be rescued from all our sins. All of these stories surround the wonder of Jesus being miraculously born, his short and intense ministry in Israel, and his death/resurrection in power.
From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." Matthew 4:17
I will call out that you'll find many stories repeated between these four books, especially between Matthew, Mark, and Luke. There are some unique stories found in each of these books, but the story here is so wonderful it's worth reading four times (and more!).
Acts
Contains the stories of how a ragtag group of disciples got the power they needed to form the church that we know to this day.
Revelation
Contains the stories of God's final dealings with the devil and the hope that he's prepared for all of humanity.
Good luck in your reading! Reading all of these stories of course can't be read in one sitting. I've found success in setting aside 15 minutes each day in reading 3-4 chapters a day. I'd suspect with this plan, you'd be done in about 6 months at this pace, if not faster.