I'd love to give The Old Reader a try... but when signing in through google, they seem to want "Manage My Contacts" permission.. there is no legitimate reason for needing to see my contacts to sign up. I'm pretty mindful of Android app permissions as well.

When I was signing in, I removed the contacts scope from the auth URL and The Old Reader didn't appear to care that it couldn't access my contacts.

I think they've replicated the social features of the old Greader, so they want your contacts so you can share with them.

If it said that it was asking for it and why, I may have allowed it, in any case it doesn't seem to ask for that anymore... :) Now, if my import would process already.

I tried that too. Currently there are 10000+ users in front of me in import queue. I hope they will be able to process it till July...

In the last two days only 500 people in front of me have left the queue. Feedly definitely gets point for their speed, but as others have stated the layout just isn't for me.

If you mean the goofy, information-poor magazine view, you can select the familiar-looking Titles view by clicking the gear icon over a feed.