What I prefer to start with is 27 pieces of writing that were collected into a library of books for the Christian Bible. The term Bible comes from the Greek byblos (books).
This collection has four basic parts: the four Gospels, a history of the very early church called Acts of the Apostles, 22 epistles attributed to various apostles, and the Book of Revelation (or Apocalypse of John).
The Gospels and Acts are primarily historical in the sense that they tell the story (or "good spell") of Jesus and his principal followers. The letters or epistles are a series of didactic about moral and organizational issues within the apostolic church. Revelation is the apocalyptic book, concerned with predicting the end of the world as we know it.
We have no original manuscripts, but scholars generally agree that the books were written between about the year 50 of our era to as late as 115 -- with many, many opinions in between. The earliest complete list of the 27 books is found in a letter written by Athanasius, a 4th-century bishop of Alexandria, dated 367 AD.
Adding to the confusion are the plethora of writings of a similar era and nature by purported followers of Jesus. For example, there are 15 gospels that are not included in the traditional list of New Testament books. There is also considerable debate concerning the authorship of the Letter to the Hebrews and Revelation -- not to mention the other books.
This is all due to two facts. First, the historical Yeshua bar Yosif of Nazareth, along with his closest followers (and all but two of the NT authors), were very likely illiterate. Second, the oral stories told to scribes and followers went through revisions; there was no notion of "copyright," let alone formal authorship.
In sum, it is essentially a collection of 27 books recognized, by usage and reputation, to reflect the most genuine story and rendering of the earliest Christian teachings.
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