Oh I did just figure out something more efficient -- when you click on "show unread posts" and the list of those comes up, click on the yellow "NEW" button next to the topic, and it will dump you down to the end of the list (or new posts, haven't quite figure out which) instead of starting you at the top of the list (which is what happens if you click on the topic "title" ....
I'm sure there are lots more shortcuts on this that I just haven't figured out yet ....