Are the Gospels a Literal Story?

When it comes to the gospels, there is good textual evidence that they're portraying themselves as at least more or less literal history. So I think admitting that certain things shouldn't be read literally does raise the question about well, why should we interpret any of it that literally then? But I think in some cases they're perfectly good answers. It doesn't follow that you know, we should do that with the rest of the Bible or with any other book at all.