Google Reader

Continuing in the Friday series on websites and webtools that I love, and fittingly to go with RSS feeds, may I introduce... Google Reader!

Google Reader is a Google tool, obviously. Like I briefly mentioned last week, its basically used to capture all the new stuff on blogs and bring it to you, so you don't have to visit a bunch of websites every day, just to check if there's anything new. You have to have a Google Account to user Reader, but if you don't have one, get one. It's free. It's easy. It's great. And you get the use of a ton of tools (omg, Google Docs, I love thee).

Something to beware: not every website or publisher sends full articles to readers. Sometimes they only send headlines or a few sentences, and to read the rest you have to click on the title and be directed to the website.

To search for new stuff to add, you can try publications (like "New York Times") or authors (think "Dear Abby"), or even topics (play reviews, parenting, new movies). You can preview the subscription by reading previous posts, and decide to either click "subscribe" or "no, thanks." After you start using Google Reader often, it'll suggest things you may be interested in.
You can organize things with labeled folders.
You can "star" favorite things for keeps or to read later.
You can SHARE your favorites automatically.
When you become really advanced, there is a huge list of shortcut keys that can be used.

Now, I probably have very different interests than some of you, but if you're looking for some starter suggestions on things to read, here's what I subscribe to...
Theatre. Should've guessed. There are a TON of things you could subscribe to in that arena, but I don't want to spend 8 hours a day reading play reviews, so I limit myself to seven subscriptions. Broadway Scores and Sheet Music is seriously a feed that gives you links to download these items. Fascinating. I also have New York Theatre and The New York Times Theater section.
Board Gaming. Yep, it's a big hobby of mine, and I subscribe to nine blogs that write about it.
Yehuda and Boardgame News are my favorites.
Disney. I read eight Disney feeds. Jim Hill Media and Magical Mountain Disney News are great.
Education. Only four subscriptions, and of course one of them is The Chronicle. Another is hilarious yet still covers breaking news, DetentionSlip.
Zune. It's my mp3 player of choice, and I follow nine writers to find out the latest software and free downloads. The downside is that they all post multiple times per day, so I read very little other than articles that are of extreme interest, so I won't recommend any.
Local Stuff. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I subscribe to stuff around here, mostly to find out what's going on, what bands are coming to town, and what free stuff there is to do. I would highly suggest finding similar subscriptions for where you live. If you happen to be a local reader, I suggest Fun Things to do in the Bay Area, and Outdoors in the Bay Area.
I also read six blogs about Facebook, because I like to be current on all of the evolution of the site. And a bunch of other, non-grouped things, which I won't bore you with, because those are probably uninteresting to most, LoL.

If you use a Reader, what do you subscribe to?