I’ve just gone and done it, I’ve declared Google Reader bankruptcy. That means not only that I’ve marked hundreds of unread items as read (I do that regularly anyway) but that I’ve unsubscribed from everything and deleted all tags and folders  as well. Here’s the screenshot to prove it:

Google Reader

I’m sure it’s not difficult to guess why I did this, because of the technological pseudo-complaint they call “information overload”. It’s simple to subscribe to newly discovered feeds, all too easy to accumulate hundreds of unread items, and satisfyingly tempting to hit the big “Mark As Read” button, thus rendering the whole exercise pointless.

By having so many feeds in my feed reader that I could only scan through the headlines in “List View” I had become victim to the copywriters’ ploy of adding stand-out, shocking, intriguing or provocative titles – only to be disappointed so often by the substance of the article. Now I want to go back to the old method of choosing top quality feeds that I wish to follow properly, bringing up the full text of the article in front of me before deciding whether I need to read it fully, take action as a result, or skip to the next post.

So here I am at day one, with an empty feed reader open to suggestions from my own readers here.

Are there any RSS feeds you would like to recommend to me for the purpose of subscribing, reading regularly and inwardly digesting?