Steve: I usually start with the "Home" page, and then hit "New Posts", which brings up everything I have not read. Just think of "New posts" as "New" to you only.
As for tracking any threads I have personally started or post to, I just slide my mouse cursor over to the left hand "Site Navigation" bar; down to My NC WW; and then onto My Thread Subscriptions and click the mouse. That will bring up all the threads I have started or posted to and the ones I have not read will be highlighted.
If the "New Posts" starts getting into too many pages, preview the titles and get the original post synopses, but after reading all you want, go to the "Forums" page, and down at the bottom will be "mark all forums read", which will reset the "New Posts" to anything posted after you hit that button.
I do clean out "My thread subscriptions" occasionally by checking the ones I don't want to keep in the little box on the right and then going down to the box at the bottom that says "move to folder" and click the down arrow to "delete" and then hit "go"to get rid of them.
That's how I do it anyway
Go
PS; Realize when you log in a lot of work has been done to adapt this site to you, your preferences, and what you have seen, so Your home page is different than mine or others, depending on parameters you set in you personal options menu.