I've got to stress how well this works (thanks for the link Will), it's so much easier than the digest mode:

"Survival on the Mail Lists:
http://www.vanagonauts.com/Mailing-List-Survival169.htm 

Will in Alaska."

I use Outlook and I funnel four Vanagon related lists into one folder and read them this way.  Since my other three lists are Yahoo! lists they also arrange themselves by list and then by subject because these lists tag the subject with the list name.  It's important to keep the "reading pane" turned off so you can scan through the subjects quickly. 

I also have a "Saved Vanagon" folder, and I move messages that I may need to refer to later into it (the latest tire thread for example).   When I'm done I simply right click on the Vanagon folder and "delete all" and am ready for the next batch.

It is oh so much faster and easier to keep up with lists this way!  I'm sure you can do something similar with other email programs.   I get several hundred emails a day, and can easily keep up with it all.

P.S.:  If anyone would like to see how this looks, I'll send you a screen shot.

Stuart