Hi, Numinous! I love my reader, too! (Sony, but hey...) I remember how overwhelming this forum was when I first came here - and I still have trouble getting my "search" right, even when I'm looking for posts I've read and know are there...somewhere.
You may have figured this out already, but it took me awhile and helped me keep up with all the news... When I log in each day (yes, I come every day
), I start by clicking on "New Posts". I can scan the list for new threads, even if they're in forums I don't normally visit. Sometimes the thread titles aren't very helpful "Need help, please!" - but I can look at which forum, then, and decide if I want to open it or not.
Another thing I learned to do, if I found a thread that looked like something I'd want to come back to, I subscribe to it. You get an email just after midnight everyday of any new posts and your User CP (hmmm....don't know what CP stands for) lists all your subscribed threads. That helped me for a long time, since I seem to have a lousy track record coming up with good key word terms to find those threads again using "search"!