Since this seems to be the thread for alternatives...
Someone at the time of Reader's demise recommended Selfoss, and I've been running it ever since. It's not quite as good, but it does what I wanted from Reader.
I also use Selfoss, it does what I need it to. Although the author's decision to override the Space key is odd. I comment that part of the JS and let the aggregated js regenerate to return that behavior to the browser.
Someone at the time of Reader's demise recommended Selfoss, and I've been running it ever since. It's not quite as good, but it does what I wanted from Reader.