If you are 1) using Firefox and 2) a client-side RSS reader isn't a deal breaker, I would heartily recommend Brief%. It's a Firefox extension and, when I was looking around for RSS readers a year or two ago, it was the only one I found comfortable. It finally converted me to an RSS addict. Google Reader was all right, but I preferred a non-cloud solution, partly because I could manually refresh feeds and be certain they were up-to-date.

No social features, and no straightforward way to sync across computers/devices, so it's not at all a replacement for Google Reader in its entirety.

% https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/brief/