Feed Overload

How do you manage “feed overload”? Let me clarify. What I mean is when you haven’t checked your feeds in a day or two and you have more than your usual load waiting for you, how do you manage it?

When I do experience “feed overload” I just feel overwhelmed and reading my feeds becomes a chore instead of a hobby. So, for some of the sites I’m subscribed to such as Mashable or Robert Scoble’s Linklist, sometimes I just hit “Mark all as read”. They usually have the highest count of published articles in a day and I don’t have the time to sit and read through all of them when they’re over their usual amount. Other times, I’m just not in the mood. Right now, my unread articles count is at 424 (in Google Reader). This is more than what I read on a daily basis in one setting. I have nothing better to do until 12:15pm est (it’s 9:36am), so I doubt I’ll be hitting Mark all as read without going through all the feeds.