wait a minute...
Are you actually reading the Talmud, or a collection of quotations from it? I ask because of your reference to "terrible" passages about the treatment of non-Jews. Compendia of such quotations are commonly found on antisemitic websites, most often associated with the "research" of one I. B. Praniatis, a Russian antisemite of the turn of the century. Many of his references are fabrications, and those that exist at all are invariably misquoted and/or taken out of context.
It is much more common to find admonitions to treat Gentiles with the same compassion and fairness that one extends to fellow Jews, often with reference to the Biblical injunction to "be kind to the stranger, since you were strangers in Egypt," which is repeated several times in the Torah. There are even many warnings that it is far worse to cheat a non-Jew than a Jew, because it is a "khillul ha-Shem", a shaming of the Holy Name.
The Talmud is an enormous work, running to dozens of folio-sized volumes with numerous sections and subsections on every page, of layers of commentaries and later commentaries on the commentaries. It is written in both Hebrew and Aramaic, and often uses shorthand-type references and allusions that were clear to the rabbis and sages of the time, but are opaque today to all but experts.
Its form is that of a record of debates among various scholars and sages from the same and from different periods, as if they were all in the same room at the same time. Various opinions on various points of Jewish law are given, often without a clear indication of what the final consensus was--if indeed there was one. It is often found that more than one answer was acceptable, and sometimes the acceptable answers were contradictory. The limits of the human intellect are very often acknowledged, and it is sometimes decided that "When Elijah comes, he will explain which of us is right--or why we both are." Sometimes outrageously wrongheaded, bigoted, or frankly evil opinions are included in order to be refuted; and sometimes such sayings are left without comment, just as one will see outrageous statements quoted without comment on this forum: their foolishness or evil is apparent to all and require none.
There is even humor in the Talmud, though perhaps unintentional. Though it is famous for analyzing every possible application and situation concerning a particular law, there were limits; in one passage discussing the ownership of a lost chicken, the consensus is reached that, if the chicken is found less than 100 cubits from the land of a man who raises chickens, the bird is assumed to be his; if found farther away, it belongs to he who found it. At this point in the discussion, one Rabbi Joseph is said to have asked, "What if the chicken is found with one foot closer than 100 cubits, and the other foot farther away?"
The text notes that "At that point, R. Joseph was asked to leave the Assembly."
As if all that complexity weren't enough, the traditional interpretation and priority of passages in the Talmud is generally not written, but passed down face-to-face by scholars in a tradition of group study that has persisted for centuries and is still followed today. If you are beginning to think that Talmud study is an esoteric field for dedicated experts akin to the study of quantum physics, you would not be wrong. There are, to be sure, some wonderful texts for the layman; "Everyman's Talmud", "The Talmud for Today", and "The Talmud for Dummies" are three, but there are many more.
In general, beware of any reference that seems to include a lot of shocking or patently immoral statements. It is not difficult, in the detailed records and commentaries of a thousand years of conversation and argument, to find such things and rip them from their contexts or deliberately misquote them to "prove" the "evil" taught in these books. One rather famous example, merrily quoted on Stormfront, JewWatch, and other such hate sites, is this: "Sex with a three-year-old child is as nothing"--of no account, insignificant. Horrible, right?
Here is the context: A loss of virginity, in the ancient world, incurred certain consequences, e.g., concerning the dowry or bride-price to be paid by the father or prospective husband, as well as in matters of ritual purification and the obvious social stigma. The sages were here agreeing that a small child who had been raped would not be made to suffer any such consequences in later life. Some horror, huh? Sparing a victim of child sexual abuse from being victimized for life. Deplorable.
You will not see this context revealed on any hate site--and there are many--that posts it. The deception is not an accident, nor from ignorance. It is quite deliberate. These misquotations and distortions of the Talmud have been circulating for centuries, and they continue to this day.
If you wish to study Talmud in a casual way, choose a book from a reputable publisher written by a recognized scholar, such as those recommended above. If you wish to study Talmud in the traditional manner, first learn Hebrew and Aramaic, then find a yeshiva or Beit Midrash and set aside the next 20 or 30 years for the task.
And good luck. There is a prominent rabbi here in Dallas, considered a world-class authority on Torah and Talmud--and he is still studying daily, and will be the last to tell you that he knows everything. No one, to my knowledge--not even the great sages of medieval times who were known to have memorized the entire Talmud, page numbers and all--has ever made that claim.
I've been reading the talmud, or certain passages from it. Wow. I never realized how ignorant I was. Still am. It'll take a while to get through it all, there's some real nasty stuff in there re. the treatment on non-jews. Some of it is just plain horrible. That's about all I have to say, I need to read the whole shebang I guess before I form an opinion, but so far ........meh..
Currently I am working through one chapter of the Qur'an a night on audio. 
