I'm also busy learning how to be maximally efficient in Google Reader so this is a valuable exercise for me too. There's quite a set of different keyboard shortcuts available in the program, and I dug up the full list by checking Google's fairly extensive Common Questions document.
Here's the full list:
| j/k | item down/up | selects the next/previous item in the list |
| space/shift-space | page down/up | moves the page down/up |
| n/p | scan down/up | in list view, selects the next item without opening it |
| o | open/close item | in list view, expands or collapses the selected item |
| enter | open/close item | in list view, expands or collapses the selected item |
| s | toggle star | stars the selected item |
| shift-s | toggle share | shares the selected item |
| m | mark as read/unread | switches the read state of the selected item |
| t | tag an item | opens the tagging field for the selected item |
| v | view original | opens the original source for this article in a new window |
| shift-a | mark all as read | marks all items in the current view as read |
| 1 | expanded view | displays the subscription as expanded items |
| 2 | list view | displays the subscription as a list of headlines |
| r | refresh | refreshes the unread counts in the navigation |
| shift-n/p | navigation down/up | selects the next/previous subscription or folder in the navigation |
| shift-x | navigation expand/collapse | expand or collapse a folder selected in the navigation |
| shift-o | navigation open subscription | opens the item currently selected in the navigation |
| gh | go to home | goes to the Google Reader homepage |
| ga | go to all items | goes to the "All items" view |
| gs | go to starred items | goes to the "Starred items" view |
| gt | go to tag | allows you to navigate to a tag by entering the tag name |
| gu | go to subscription | allows you to navigate to a subscription by entering the subscription name |
| u | toggle full screen mode | hides and shows the list of subscriptions |
| ? | keyboard shortcuts help | displays a quick guide to all of Reader's shortcuts |
Of these, I have to admit that most don't seem too useful, and some are confusing in their overlap. For example, while there's an apparent difference between "j" and "n", since I always read my feeds in "Expanded" view, they exhibit exactly the same behavior when reading a set of feeds.
I'm most intrigued about sharing items, however, and that's next on my list, to have a URL where people can look over my shoulder and see what items in my feeds I think are most interesting. That's the "shift-s" (or "S") shortcut, btw. I still miss the ability to annotate my shared items a la Bloglines, but perhaps as I dig into the sharing capability I'll find a similar capability.
Anyway, those are the most critical shortcuts. For the way I use Google Reader to keep up on RSS, I'll candidly admit that most of 'em are irrelevant (for example, I don't change views or open or close individual items) and I still read, oh, about 170 feeds on a daily basis. Am I missing key features and capabilities? Perhaps someone who has had more time using Google Reader can comment on this?
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Google Reader Keyboard Shortcuts - type "?" to display a handy pop-up window that lists all the shortcuts.