I generally don’t read print newspapers or magazines. Instead, I check my RSS feeds for news on Netvibes every morning and also visit CNN.com. A story title catches my eye and I start reading. This means I miss a lot of well-written and informative news. If I had it my way, I’d have a personal assistant who would read through all my favorite sources (Utne Reader, Mother Jones, and The New York Times) and tell me what stories are worth reading, “Laurie, you should really read this article about the new President of Argentina. It talks about her plans for improving the economy.” Ah…what a dream.

But, it’s not a dream anymore! Brijit is my new personal assistant. According to Brijit: “Simply, Brijit aggregates the world’s best long-form content and abstracts it in 100 words or less, providing busy, omnivorous, and increasingly mobile readers with rich, qualitative summaries as well as better guideposts for what to read, watch or listen to now. We produce these abstracts in concert with our readers, as one community of readers, writers and editors. Think of us as your well-read friend who leads you to that can’t miss article, video clip or product.”  Each abstract also has a dot “rating”.  Here’s the key to the ratings:

• 0 = not a priority
• 1 = worth reading if you have the time
• 2 = special, worth making time for
• 3 = exceptional, a must-read, not to be missed. (These are rare…I haven’t found one yet).

Of course, you can subscribe to the RSS feeds on Brijit, but I prefer to visit the homepage and quickly review the current stories which are listed according to: Recommended, Most Popular, Featured, Politics, Business, Science & Tech, Sports, Opinion, Entertainment, Food, Travel, Arts, Style, Health, Education, Home, Transportation, and Religion.

I’ve also created an online profile so that I can remember what I’ve read, share it, email it, and save it (You can view my profile here).