Seems like I was spending too much time doing the entrepreneurial stuff and managed to live without an RSS reader for god knows how long - but now that I am using an RSS reader - I wonder how the hell have I been able to survive up until now...
NetNewsWire was the first RSS reader that I relied and that I have stuck with - the features are excellent and intelligent and the UI looks slick. The feeds update extremely quick on load and the app also supports Japanese Chinese and Korean. The built in browser is also rather coolsome (but limited in features).
There is also a freeware version if you are feeling a bit poor.